Simpler Staging Takes Techno to New Heights

OK, so the future isn’t entirely here yet.

“Has anyone got a guitar?” joked one of English electronic dance music duo Orbital’s Hartnoll brothers from the dark stage during a “technical difficulties” pause toward the end of their otherwise masterful closing set of the Community Service tour Saturday at the Long Beach Convention Center.

A little techno humor, sure. But it was also a back-handed acknowledgment that some rock concert conventions can be useful at times. In part, this 18-city tour was an admission to that, eschewing a typical rave’s sci-fi carnival sensory overload in favor of a standard-issue, single-stage environment. And it worked.

Where most other electronica package tours have been box-office bombs, Community Service--presenting Orbital, Glendale duo Crystal Method and English combine Lo Fidelity Allstars--drew healthy ticket sales (4,500 Saturday) and left its largely young crowd quite pleased with the musical and visual feast.

Of course, Crystal Method, which organized the venture, has experienced the benefits of convention, having seen its 1997 debut album “Vegas” propelled to gold sales by the use of several songs in TV commercials for cars and trousers.

Perhaps in reaction, the new material the pair of Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland previewed Saturday veered away from the elements of their most familiar pieces (sharp, catchy sampled vocal hooks and speech fragments) in favor of a steady dance pulse. A dazzling wall of strobe lights compensated visually for their decision to merely stand behind banks of keyboards and devices.

The opening Allstars were closer to a band in format, both with a mix of “live” instruments and electronics and in terms of the more songlike structures, ranging from dub-poetry explorations to clavinet-driven funk.

But it was the pioneering, veteran Orbital that impressed most. Paul and Phil Hartnoll possess perhaps the most sophisticated musical instincts among top techno acts, building musical excursions with almost classical structure, yet never letting the beat flag. On Saturday they showed they can be both artists (majestic soundscapes) and wry vulgarians (sampling Bon Jovi) and make it all seem of one piece. An equally sophisticated video presentation gave as much for the eyes as the music did for the ears and feet.

That guitar? Who needs it?