Live Review: Pendulum, Carling Academy, Sheffield. 10/12/2008.

Let’s get one thing cleared up before I start discussing the event in question. Going to see Pendulum is in no way going to a dance event, even one along the lines of going to see an act like Faithless or Prodigy. Tonight Sheffield’s Carling Academy hosts a full-blown, sweaty (for want of a better phrase) rock concert.

So, onto the gig itself. The academy is as packed as ever seen it for this summers big festival hit. Pendulum’s set at Leeds Festival in summer has the NME Stage in uproar as full-scale carnage broke out as the band played highlights from both their albums. Tonight the story is much the same. From the minute Pendulum thrash into opener Showdown, pure chaos ensues within in the crowd, and by the time the band have moved onto making the floor shake with the bass line to Fasten Your Seatbelts, a full scale mosh pits break out, consuming most of the crowd.

The rest of the set continues in much of the same vein, Pendulum rock their way through the highlights from their 2005 debut Hold Your Colour and new album In Silico, and the crowd continue to jump/fight their way around the room. As far as the band’s performance goes, nearly every song sounds perfect despite the volume. The only criticism I can make is the classic Slam sounding slower than the album version, but the band building up to it with an excellent rendition of Metallica’s Master Of Puppets helps to take my mind of this.

The set list includes nearly everything that could be expected. Granite, Propane Nightmares, The Other Side, Tarantula and Voodoo People (a cover/remix of Prodigy) are all present, but the inclusion of old tracks Hold Your Colour and Another Planet are particular highlights for me.

So, to conclude. Pendulum were pretty much perfect, the crowd was insane. The perfect combination of indie-rave kids and metal heads that Pendulum appeal to these days creates a brilliant atmosphere. Even the people who were clearly there more out of interest than genuine fans of the band get in on the havoc that Pendulum caused at the Academy tonight. This all leads to one simple lesson: go and see Pendulum. And do it soon, before they are selling arenas out. So you've probably got about a year...