Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) have a surprisingly compelling live show considering they are an older band playing a somewhat austere brand of synth-pop that one might think would translate somewhat poorly to a live show.

Many people in the audience are older, since the band was at its peak when this style of music was in vogue in the 80’s. However, most of the fans have long sense abandoned the gothic fashions often associated with this type of music! As a band that plays primarily electronic music, the band uses a large amount of synthesizers and similar musical instruments, some which are vintage, and others which are more modern.

The band uses a large amount of lights and other staging elements to compensate for the lack of stage presence that this type of music is often associated with. Although some people would consider this kind of music to be somewhat boring in a live setting, the audience actually gets pretty into it, with a few nostalgic and brave people dancing to the band’s more poppy numbers.

Seeing OMD live is an introspective and thoughtful experience, but also a surprisingly energetic experience with more crowd participation than one might think, considering the nature of the band’s music.

British electronic trio Zoot Woman has gained a lot of support mainly from their live shows. Adam and Johnny Blake, along with Stuart Price have established themselves by blending the sounds of acoustic instrumentation with electronic tracking, which has allowed them to put on great live shows; in fact there are quite a number of people who have traveled long distances just to see them.
Keeping up with the image that they hold so important, the trio takes the stage in fitted suits that remind you a bit of the 80s, armed with their instruments. Immediately they start playing their music, and I challenge anyone to listen to their music, especially live, and not dance. What’s great about the fact that they’ve been around for awhile is that they have a large number of options of songs to play. They do a tremendous job at playing a bit from every album, making sure to hit all the singles from these albums as well. They are great fun between songs as well, especially when they go into a bit of banter from time to time, resulting in a bit of laughter from everyone. The high energy from stage, as well as from the rest of the audience makes for an absolutely great time of music and dancing.