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On this day, 29 May 2010, Australian drum and bass band Pendulum played Cardiff International Arena.
The band had just released their third studio album Immersion making no 1 on the UK album charts in its first week of release. The album features collaborations with Liam Howlett, Steven Wilson and the Swedish melodic death metal band In Flames.
Review Wales Online May 2010
I DON’T profess to know much about Pendulum and would in no way consider myself a fan, so their gig on Saturday night was like stepping into the unknown.
Someone had told me, before the show had even started, that the band is one of the best live acts around this year – a lot for the Australians, who blend rock and drum’n’bass beats, to live up to.
I’ve seen Pendulum once before, as the opening support act for a Prodigy gig a few years ago, at the same venue.
My memory is a little hazy of that concert, but Pendulum this time around, as headliners, exploded on to the stage in a blaze of light and sound, setting the tone for the rest of their 90-minute set.
With a nod to the Prodigy just a few tunes in, Pendulum fused elements of rock with dance and drumbeats creating a sweaty and eclectic mix that had most of the not-quite sell-out crowd hopping from foot to foot.
Where once they may have been a little heavier on the rock influences, with their latest album Immersion out, it all sounded a little more dance-y and, dare I say it, rave-y.
There were some great moments in Pendulum’s set and, at times, I again felt like a teenager who had just discovered serious dance music – the beats transported me back to my youth and sweaty late-night rave clubs on a Friday night.
But there were also some tedious moments as the bass lines seemed just a little too similar from one song to the next, and at times it was all a little clichéd and same-old, same-old.