Somewhere under Tottenham Court Road, under the LED billboards, the Friday night partygoers and wandering tourists, there’s a tempest brewing. Pendulum, Australian Electronic Rock and Drum and Bass legends – the soundtrack to the millennial British university experience, are taking their place in the BRITs Week for War Child 2024 lineup. While they’re back in the UK in march to headline The O2, this is an altogether more intimate and intense experience here at Outernet: no support acts, no merch and absolutely nothing to take away from Pendulum’s short, sharp set. Old school ravers mingle with metalheads and hipsters with city workers in the slick corporate basement. We’re all here for the same reason: to go absolutely wild.
PENDULUM @ HERE At Outernet as part of BRITs Week for War Child
“We haven’t played in three months, we might be a bit rusty,” apologises lead vocalist Rob Swires after Driver as an apocalyptic beginning to their set. There’s never silence between their songs, only ripples of ambient beats as breaks. While Pendulum have always lurked in the crevice between drum and bass and metal, their set proves that they’re still on the mission to unite the genres into one, brutal sound. Propane Nightmare’s gorgeous weightless pause generates a pitching, seething pit until knockdown beats glitch into an extended outro, then we’re all fully jumping, feet off the ground, to Come Alive’s dreamy 8-bit retro sound and the first guitar solo of the night. A red fuzz descends and we scream out the melody to Blood Sugar, revelling in the stark joy of this tune, with chunky bouncy bass in the bridge and a breakdown with a ghost of the melody. Seamlessly they mix Blood Sugar into Voodoo People and our phones swing upwards to remember this moment.
Dry ice obscures our view, bathing the band in swampy green as tripping and shaking xylophones introduce Colourfast. “Gonna take it down a notch,” explains Swires, singing like he’s trying to breathe his soul into the ultra-electronic future. A mother and daughter duo dance like they’re in a rave and hold their hands up to touch the lights. The Island Pt 1 takes us back into classic dance territory, and the slight tint of sadness in the vocals is buoyed up by endless hazy beats. Latecomers shove in to muscle their way to the front as Gareth McGrillen runs to the back to the stage, reflecting the light from his bass like a mirrored laser over a happy hardcore breakdown. Neon raindrops fall down the LED walls as Nothing For Free’s punchy beats move quickly and slowly simultaneously and the first crowd surfers are ejected. This is a show on the scale of a festival crammed into a basement nightclub.
Just when we’re at the peak of our endorphin rush, the iconic introduction to Tarantula drops. “We’re definitely taking this one out the set if you guys don’t go off. It’s already on the fucking chopping block,” threatens Swires. Sly guitar slinks in before a bass drop strong enough to crack the foundations and for three minutes, the entire room dances with no exceptions and no inhibitions. Fading chords continue as Pendulum go off stage, then we’re sent on our way with Watercolour’s scraping and gliding synth distortion and snapping bass drops. It’s a very short set with a curfew earlier than most West End Musicals, but that’s what BRITs Week is all about: providing something special and unexpected to support War Child. It’s just a taster of the absolute sonic chaos Pendulum will bring to London in March for what’s bound to be one heck of a genre-smashing show.
BRITs Week 24 For War Child continues in the run to to The BRIT Awards at London’s The O2 on 2nd March along with a super-special Hebden Bridge show from this year’s baroque-rock darlings The Last Dinner Party on 4th March. The remaining shows are:
FEBRUARY
26th – AURORA – Lafayette, London
27th – Gabriels – Ronnie Scott’s, London
28th – Sleaford Mods – Scala, London
MARCH
1st – CMAT – Bush Hall, London
1st – Venbee – Omeara, London
4th – The Last Dinner Party – The Trades Club, Hebden Bridge
Review of Pendulum @ HERE at Outernet, London on 23rd February 2024 by Kate Allvey. Photos by Richard Mukuze.
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