Moby checks in with his ‘Hotel’ inspirations

Moby went all out with the titular theme of his new album, “Hotel,” right up to a tie-in with a certain hotel chain (hint: Turn the first letter of his name upside down). But the concept, he has explained, is the notion of a hotel room as a place of daily renewal, with all traces of prior occupants sanitized away for your protection.

His generous concert at the Wiltern LG on Saturday, though, was an open nod toward those who designed, built, decorated and previously rented the musical suite in which he currently resides.

In some cases it was explicit -- he dedicated the wistfully nostalgic “Spiders” to David Bowie, who was in the audience, and noted that the pulsating “Beauty” is modeled after the Giorgio Moroder/Donna Summer disco-era collaborations. He and his four-member band also performed versions of Joy Division’s “New Dawn Fades,” New Order’s “Temptation,” Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” and the Doors’ “Break on Through” -- the last spiritedly rag-tag with guitarist Daron Murphy taking the lead vocals.

More often, though, it was implicit, especially in “Hotel” selections evoking such glam-era dreamers as Bowie, Roxy Music and T. Rex. In these Moby has largely completed his long-evolving journey from techno tinkerer to full-on songwriter and guitar-wielding band frontman. Even such formerly electronic-based pieces as “Porcelain” and “Honey” (from his 1999 breakthrough album, “Play”) were transformed Saturday into live band material, with co-vocalist Laura Dawn full-throatedly rendering on stage what originally had been samples from old blues and soul records.

Moby himself is a plain if earnest vocalist, and the arrangements often lacked the filigree of glam and rock classics. But this self-proclaimed nerd is first and foremost a fan, and his irrepressible love for the music made this an involving, celebratory evening.