"Who is this so called Moby impersonator," is all that was running through my mind only to be immediately followed by "this guy is awesome" as I stood near the rear of the purposefully not-filled-to-capacity SmartBar in Chicago. This wasn't your Moby of "Play" origin or pop influenced friend who so craftily casted Christopher Walken. No, this moby was downright ready to get the party popp'n this past tuesday night. I'd seen the man before in a couple different settings most notably on the Mediterranean the same weekend as Daft Punk a couple years ago. I don't know if it was the crowd he was catering to or the fact that I was just so blown away by the French Duo's innovative live show, which has just about muted every other act for the next millenium, but Moby came off as a boring pop music act.
Tuesday night was a completely different beast altogether. From the moment he blended his first record off the previous dj's "Freaky mutha fucka," he brought a sound I usually find synonymous with the likes of the hardest pounding dj's.
There have been very few cities I've been to around the globe that give off the same "you better bring it hard" vibe worthy of "dance music bastion" status. Over the years after seeing dj's in varying cities and settings I'd like to believe that the vary same ones who might spin a typical pop oriented set for the less dance music refined crowd are inclined to pull out their dirtiest, bang'n-est, crowd-movingest records for their Chicago fans.
Before heading out to the show I had a few conversations about that evenings act, mostly consisting of "I wonder how its going to sound, hopefully not like last time... You know Play was his best album... I like him but he just doesn't have that hard hitting dance sound that would really wanna make me move."
All I can say is that on the evening in question Moby got back to what probably inspired him into the dance music arena to begin with and once again reunited me with what made me a fan initially.

Great review!
I really enjoyed the show, but the crowd was a bit overwhelming for any decent pictures.
It was funny how 80% of the crowd left when Moby was finished.
The guys who came on after him played a really good set as well...
Last time I saw Moby was in '92 in Detroit where I was living at the time. The Rave scene was really big at that time.
dsi's uploader was being finicky and I ended up uploading twice.
It would be nice if they had a better system like flickr's.