Plugging in

Big Top and Electric Highway

by Jonathan Perry

If you were driving on Route 2 west toward Fitchburg at roughly 7:30 p.m. last Saturday, chances are you saw that molten sunset drop behind the hills, burning orange fire all the way down. If your destination was the Wallace Civic Center and the Big Top techno rave -- one of two star-studded electronica shows to hit the region last weekend -- chances are you heard that sunset's aural equivalent three hours later, during Banco de Gaia's mesmerizing performance.

Banco's Middle Eastern-tinged Floydian prog-rock might have seemed a little out of place amid all the metallic sturm and clang of breakbeat hardheads like Moby. Yet the effect was of tearing slabs from the evening's city of steel-and-concrete sonic skyscrapers and launching them into outer space -- via saxophone. Besides, the band's composition of ethereal chant and trance soundscapes was in keeping with the palpable sense of inclusiveness and community that characterized both Fitchburg's Big Top and the next night's Electric Highway extravaganza at the World Trade Center.

Even though this is only the first year for both the 10-date Big Top and the 15-date Electric Highway tour (each roadshow is separately sponsored -- in fact, they're competing with each other), everything seemed to go off without a hitch. A substantial number of walk-up ticket buyers joined these all-ages eight-hour blowouts as they roared toward midnight and beyond. The fans leaned to the teen end of the spectrum, most of them in standard skatewear or shiny spaceboy gear, some even wearing fuzzy pink bunny suits. And despite the brooding menace and relentless thump of the music, the mellow, exuberant camaraderie was the polar opposite of what you get at your average testosterone-fueled, mosh-pit-centered rock show.

First up was Big Top, Saturday at the hockey-rink-turned-Apocalypse-Now called the Wallace Civic Center, where the night's biggest name, Moby, delivered a manic assault on the senses, bounding on stage like a whirling dervish who had ingested a couple dozen too many Flintstones vitamins. As befits a guy who proudly called his last album, Animal Rights (Elektra), a rock release, Moby produced a few rock-star moves, reinvigorating an audience that had begun to show signs of waning after five hours of sonic pummeling. Announcing at one point that he was going to "get naked" (appreciative cheers from fans), Moby stripped off his T-shirt and threw it into the crowd before chucking a mike stand off stage right.

Earlier in the evening, using an array of chainsaw guitars, hyperkinetic percussion, and mega-bottomed hip-hop rhythm and rhyme, Headrillaz had dismantled any notions one might have had that techno '90s-style is even remotely linked to what anybody's older sister conceives of as "techno." No tall hair or test-tube Dolby geekdom here. Just us monster beats.

Notwithstanding their shared occupancy under the new "electronica" umbrella, outfits like cut-and-paste noise merchants 808 State (from Manchester, England), acid-house trip-hoppers Loop Guru, and Electric Highway Tour headliners the Crystal Method were dramatically different in approach and content. But they did share the distinguishing characteristic that separates this new breed of techno from its not-so-distant ancestors: an allegiance to rhythm and groove first, no matter how many layers of industrial-strength squall that rhythm and groove might be buried under.

Besides a dazzling battery of lasers and mind-bending graphics projected on two huge screens at either side of the stage, Sunday's Electric Highway Tour at the World Trade Center boasted its share of audio highlights, including Fluke, a charismatic British outfit who mixed dirty-white-girl skronk with an air-raid industrial wallop (look for the band's Risotto on Astralwerks later this month). And then there were the omnivorous song stylings of the Nevada-based Crystal Method, who offered an explosive mix of thundering bass, screeching synths, and sampled guitars underpinning deftly deployed sound bites. The result was a sinewy, razor-edged attack, and grooves that snapped and popped with deadly precision. On "Busy Child," the first single from their new, critically praised Vegas (Outpost/Geffen), the Crystal's duo of Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland polished the tune's diamond-cut dazzle to a brilliant, relentless shine, making it the night's -- and the weekend's -- highlight.