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Written by Lucy Pavia & Andrew McKeane
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 ‘We interrupt this music to warn you that this material may not be suitable for those with a weak heart’. Or apparently those over the age of 18, as my friend Andy and I surveyed the 2000 or so youths below us being gradually whipped into a frenzy by Pendulum’s support act. Overpriced drinks in hand, we wove our way into the mass, and after ten minutes of chanting and three anti-climaxes, the Australian drum and bass quintet took their places silhouetted against a blinding bank of green light. Their opening number teased the crowd into an enticing crescendo with airy synths, shots of percussion, leading to a drop that was an audio tonne of bricks. And the crowd went mental. Arms were raised, drinks were thrown and clothes were shed. At one point we were torn apart in a sort of human rip tide. If music were to be measured by the energy of the crowd, then Pendulum were delivering. It was the musical equivalent of a shot of vodka – it’s not about the nuances of flavour, but the physical response. Fearing for our safety, we retreated to the balcony and watched the last fifty minutes of a set which hammered out a combination of the familiar – ‘Tarantula’, ‘Slam’ and ‘Other Side’ – with some unfamiliar synth-pop material from their new album. I was even prepared to overlook the frontman’s unsavoury abuse of the audience in his affected Jamaican lilt: ‘It’s been a long day, it’s been a long week, it’s been a long year. We don’t f**king care. Edinburgh, riot’. Not sure about the rest of the city, but things were getting pretty hairy in the Corn Exchange.
- Pendulum
- Edinburgh Corn Exchange
- 21st August
- 20:00
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