About Time

Not even your local beekeeper could create the kind of buzz that Pendulum have whipped up in Brixton tonight.

Inside the Academy, the true measure of the Aussie sextet’s wide-ranging appeal is revealed; with as many metal-band shirts present as there are designer shirts, and hardened ravers and gig-goers rubbing shoulders with folks who look like this ‘live music’ malarkey is new to them. Best of all, everyone seems to be getting along nicely; there’s no aggro, and precious little posturing – just 4000-odd people united in their desire to go crazy to the swingin’ sounds of Pendulum.

The place is utterly rammed, and even before Pendulum start, the sweat is flowing nearly as fast as the beer. Partial credit for this has to go to Eddy Temple-Morris and his cronies, whose warm-up DJ set keeps the crowd happy with snippets of the Prodigy and Rage Against The Machine thrown into the mix.

The tension is mounting for the headliners, and as the curtain drops, the roars of approval from the crowd are deafening. The band look pretty damn impressive – resembling Nine Inch Nails with their black clad guitarists – and they’re armed with enough strobes and lasers to put a serious strain on South London’s electricity supply. Oh, and they also sound absolutely fucking massive as they steam through the likes of Propane Nightmares like a suped-up, runaway drum n’ bass juggernaut.

The band are clearly stoked to be playing their largest UK show to date, and it makes for one of those welcome – but all too rare – situations where band and crowd are feeding off each other’s energy. Whether they’re unleashing their own twisted creations on the crowd with an intensity to rival Slayer, or reworking the Prodigy’s Voodoo People into a guitar-driven, punk n’ bass snarl, it’s notable that few acts besides Pendulum are straddling the dance/rock crossover as successfully as Liam Howlett’s crew did back in the day.

With their second album, In Silico about to smash into the upper echelons of the UK charts, tonight is proof enough that Pendulum have come, seen and conquered these fair shores.