This DCist must admit we are something of a casual fan of Moby, having only seen him perform live once before, at the Area 1 tour at Merriwether in 2001. That said, Moby played a tight and professional show at last night’s sold-out show at the 9:30 Club. We were happy to find some of the things we remembered from the 2001 tour hadn’t changed: a well choreographed light show and Moby’s confident and energetic stage presence. We also appreciated the small things with betrayed this blogging musician‘s quirks: from the PETA van parked outside and corresponding tables of information inside to the photocopied signs requesting no smoking in the main stage area “at the artist’s request.”

His set included some old favorites from the album Play, covers of David Bowie and New Order, and an encore set which included a surprisingly entertaining version of Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side.” (As a side note, a fellow concert-goer even pointed out to us “We Are All Made of Stars” was scientifically correct as all elements are synthazised in stars.) Moby interspersed the music with casual comments, including a short diatribe about voting rights for D.C., (“Those of you who work in politics – go forth and lobby hard for statehood for Washington D.C.”), his nerdy youth, an advertisement idea he thought should have been aired during the election (“Cowboy hat: $65 … Convincing middle America you are a cowboy: Priceless”), and a description of a memory “standing in a field west of London with 10,000 people at 7 a.m.” Although the slightly older crowd may reflect an aging fan base, Moby delivered tightly performed classics and a few new tunes with enthusiasm and flair. The highlight for us, aside from the statehood remarks, must have been a self-described “masurbatory, self-involved guitar solo” where he wailed away at the electric guitar while the laser lights set to produce a stadium-rock effect. Although we’re not familiar with his latest albulm, Hotel, we liked what we heard of it last night and enjoyed the show.