Moby review – full of teenage energy on first tour in over a decade

Manchester Apollo
With songs either maximalist or stripped back, there’s not much subtlety during this 25th anniversary tour for the once-ubiquitous Play – but there are some head-rush thrills

‘I’m a little vegan, I’m sober, bald, maybe inbred, and I am a raver,” announces Moby tonight. It’s the first time he has toured in over a decade, as he marks the 25th anniversary of Play, the monstrously successful album that no doubt helped to put him in a position to donate all tour profits to animal rights charities. “I’m the only middle-aged idiot to go on tour and lose money,” he declares.

With a five-piece band and two backing singers, Moby often lets them do the musical heavy lifting as he pinballs around the stage like a whizzed-up teenager hammering away at his guitar, or working up the audience like an overly animated fitness instructor. Or on Go, as the ominous drones of Angelo Badalamenti’s sampled Twin Peaks score rings out, he furiously slaps bongos as cello and violin collide, alongside thunderous drums, to elevate the song into a giddy rush.

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