BT Delivers Lullaby with This Binary Universe at World Cafe Live

What better place to be lulled into an ethereal state than the World Cafe Live. The downstairs theater, with its plush feel, red tinged ambient lighting, and stylish back bar easily add to the transitory experience of attending a good concert.

With his performance of This Binary Universe, BT took things much further, as sight and sound were blended together for a lush emotive romp through both human experience and possibility. The album's inspiration is BT's newborn daughter Kaia - it was designed as a series of lullabies dedicated to her. Accompanied by Scott Pagano on electric guitar and Brian Grossman on a series of bizarre classical instruments (including the Hurdy Gurdy), BT played everything from keyboards, bass, and acoustic guitar to classical instruments in between programming beats on a laptop and working on a synthesizer. The accompanying visuals were absolutely stunning. A seeming blend of animation from Ghost in the Shell and Spirited Away, they were tailor-made for the music, which pumped through the speakers in Dolby 5.5 surround sound. The set started moody and low and built up with a mix of jazz and drum and bass infusion before soaring off as BT heavily delved into his electro roots. Of course the most stunning moment came with the album's climatic piece, Good Morning Kaia, which took us into the emotions of being a proud new father. The visual accompaniment swept the years, first showing BT as an infant at the piano with his mother, and later, at the piano with his newborn daughter at the end of the piece.

This amazing performance was followed by a Blue Monday-like rendition of Mad World and a slow rock love song on which BT played the acoustic guitar and had help on vocals from opener, Thomas Dolby.

As for Mr. Dolby, his opening set began as part lecture, part concert, which was cool since he educated the crowd on all the cool electronic music equipment that I've always wondered about (his headphones had a built in camera which showed us exactly what knobs he was tweaking), especially when seeing The Chemical Brothers and Orbital. He was informative as well as entertaining in between pieces, particularly when telling us what happened when one "Mr. ex -Britney Spears" had pinched the beat from his most famous song.

As smooth as his performance was, his opening pieces were a bit too down tempo, sounding as though they would fit better at Zanzibar Blue. But halfway through things did indeed take off, with him playing several classics as well as improvising new tunes on the spot. Oh, the 80's flashbacks while "She Blinded Me With Science" was performed (I think I was four when it came out). I know what you're thinking, but after that he came back out for an encore and rocked with some pretty heavy beats.

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