Live Review: Pendulum - Utilita Arena, Cardiff 26/03/2024
Perth rebels Pendulum bewitch Cardiff with their unique fusion of abrasive rock and melodic drum and bass.
If there is one thing 2024 will be remembered for, it is the long-awaited return of the noughties. Cascada revived euro-trance with Jax Jones on ‘Never Be Lonely’, Saltburn propelled ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ by Sophie Ellis-Bextor back into the charts and Girls Aloud are back. But perhaps the most exciting announcement is a Pendulum UK arena tour, bringing back the energetic bombast of their epic live shows.
It was a dark day for fans in 2012 when Rob Swire bluntly told Twitter ‘There will be no further Pendulum shows. There are no plans for a new album in 2013.” Despite this statement, band members Paul Harding and Ben Mount continued to play DJ sets under the band moniker which delivered the hits – but left fans longing for the electric energy from their live shows.
Before the main event, support acts Australian DJ ShockOne and rapper Scarlxrd warmed up the crowd. ShockOne served up his EDM -inflected anthems such as ‘Thinkin About’ and ‘Disappear’ to raise our dopamine levels. Bass-heavy number ‘Follow Me’ was an easy highlight, with the vocoder voice-over recalling Benny Benassi hit ‘Satisfaction’ – a surefire way to win over a buzzing crowd of millennials. While the similarities lay with the vocal, the production swerved into another direction giving Cardiff fans their first official live taste of drum & bass.
Following their 2019 reunion, the dawn of a new age of Pendulum was nigh. Rob Swire told Kerrang that their new music was inspired by “black metal and 80’s synthwave.” Enter rising star, Scarlxrd. Metal is by no means new territory for Pendulum, but Scarlxrd collaboration ‘Mercy Killing’ took it to a new level. Supporting on their tour, the Wolverhampton singer truly brought his unique brand of trap-metal fusion to life. The stuttered beats of ‘Generatixn’ lent room for his cathartic rage to blossom and on ‘MISS ME?’ he spat bars like machine-gun fire. This is acknowledged on closer ‘Heart Attack’ where he rapped “I’m like Dennis the Menace, my flow is stupendous”. Yet beneath the grit, tenderness shone through as the former YouTube personality thanked the audience for a night to remember.
Shortly after a cartoon professor onscreen proclaimed the Utilita Arena as “the domain of the untamed” in a dramatic monologue which unveiled Pendulum armed with an unreleased song called ‘Napalm’. Of all their recent tracks, this is as close to their early years as they have ever sounded. Reminiscent of their Hold Your Colour days but with less fuzzy distortion and more polish, a back-to-basics approach worked wonders.
The bold direction of their newer material landed just as well – ‘Halo’ and ‘Mercy Killing’ summoned the black metal Swire has previously spoken of and the sparse arrangements of ‘Silent Spinner’ slid along a rickety synthline not too dissimilar from Billie Eilish’s ‘bury a friend’. Far from carbon copies of previous efforts, the latest records show the group have clearly been motivated to reunite by a shared desire to try a different formula.
Little gems from their 2010 album Immersion were scattered across the night like little specks of gold-dust. ‘Crush’ made a welcome live return to the stage, a charged rush of guitars and drums that reach dizzying heights. Later joined by ‘The Island – Pt. I’ and ‘The Island Pt. II’, the latter half of the two-parter sounded at home with their side-project Knife Party. An outlier from the Immersion crew, jungle-bass crossover ‘Tarantula’ drew one of the biggest singalongs of the night where fans knew the words and the moves.
As much as they excel as a live band, many forget that the Perth collective was formed through their love of cross-genre studio production. Revisiting their DJ roots, an edgy trio of remixes dominated the early stages of their setlist. Their most popular remix of Prodigy track ‘Voodoo People’ was released in 2005 – it is testament to how fresh it sounds that it can be interspersed recent Chase & Status smash hit ‘Baddadan’. The rapturous response from the crowd only egged them on further to push ahead with the rework train. Formerly sad and introspective, ‘Encoder’ was transformed into a bouncy happy hardcore bop that got fans jumping - complete with an explosive array of green lasers.
The vivacious visuals shifted in tone depending on what they performed; the 8-bit intro of ‘Self Vs Self’ was backed by falling Tetris blocks whereas ‘Silent Spinner’ featured an unlikely pairing of old movies featuring torture devices. But the real magic lay with their willingness to flirt with new interpretations of their own songs. It not only subverted audience expectations but enhanced the live experience. An exhilarating gig reminded us that to pigeon-hole them as a drum & bass act is reductive, chameleons of the stage Pendulum will always hold their colour.
Words by Oliver Evans
Photography Credit: Jaden Moss - @Jadentigermoss
