Gig

Pendulum – Gig Review & Photo Gallery 7th October @ John Cain Arena, Melb VIC

Walladmin

Heavy Metal Wordsmith

Oct 9, 2023

7 min read

Pendulum
John Cain Arena, Melb VIC
October 7th 2023
Support: SHOCKONE

I’ve long been a Pendulum listener, but I’ve never had the fortune to see them live. So, when the opportunity arose, I jumped at the chance to review their Melbourne show. I eagerly made my way to John Cain Arena and upon arriving at the venue, I have to say that the crowd I saw piling into the arena had to be one of the wildest crossover crowds I’ve ever witnessed. Never in my life have I seen an audience made up of just as many metalheads as there were ravers and it was very clear indication that I was in for one hell of an entertaining show.

I rolled into the venue to catch the last 30 minutes of SHOCKONE’s thrilling DJ set and honestly, it was the perfect choice to get the room jumping in anticipation of the main act. Forty-five minutes of pure, unrelenting energy and the audience lapped up every second of it. Special mention has to go to the tasteful inclusion of ‘Breathe’ by The Prodigy because I firmly believe it belongs in almost every DJ set due to the hype it causes. Big props.

It's easy to see how Pendulum has become the behemoth of a band that they are and why they’re constantly playing arenas and some of the biggest festivals the world has to offer. From the moment they took the stage, the energy was just pumping and infectious. It’s been a long time since to I went a show of this kind of nature, and I had forgotten how rad it felt to see an entire arena of people having the time of their lives cutting shapes.

The songs ‘Driver’, ‘Propane Nightmares’, and ‘Come Alive’ got the set moving before the band dove into a medley of ‘Blood Sugar’ and their remix of ‘Voodoo People’ by The Prodigy. The crowd had already been going crazy, but this medley took things to a whole new level and the entire arena was pumping.

One of the coolest things about the show for me was that the crowd would not only sing along to the vocals, but they all sang along perfectly to the synth lines and hooks. It completely caught me off guard and was such an utterly joyous thing to witness. Enormous props must go to frontman Rob Swire whose vocal performance was literally pitch-perfect and drummer KJ Sawka for just crushing it behind the kit. Every member brings something special to the table, but KJ in particular just held it down all night with such unrelenting and tight drumming.

Wall Of Sound TV Does Download AfterFilm Part 1 Metallica BMTH dl20

I mentioned above about the crossover of the crowd and it all made complete sense once Pendulum launched into their set. How the band jumped from a bustling drum and bass banger to a riff driven, metal-adjacent anthem was insanely impressive. They wear their varied influences firmly on their sleeve and there’s not a bad thing about that at all.

The band launched into ‘Halo’ which features a guest vocal appearance from Matt Tuck of Bullet For My Valentine and the response was just huge. It really proves that Pendulum are a band that can do almost anything and win with their crowd, which can’t be said for many artists.

‘Witchcraft’, ‘Self Vs Self’ and ‘Tarantula’ closed out the set with a bang, but the audience was still hungry for more. Thankfully, the band returned in a matter of minutes and treated the crowd to delightful remix of the classic ABC News theme before diving straight into ‘Watercolour’.

I said earlier that it’s easy to see how Pendulum have become the enormous act they are and having now seen them live, I will happily take every opportunity possible to see them in action again. That was one of the best 90 minutes of live music I’ve ever witnessed and I’m sure every single attendee walked out of John Cain Arena just beaming with joy. Well done.

Review by Nicholas Simonsen @blackechomusic

Photo Gallery by Clinton Hatfield. Insta: @ampd.agency.
Please credit Wall of Sound and Clinton Hatfield if you report photos.

SHOCKONE

[gallery type="square" ids="https://wallofsoundau.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Shockone-2.jpg|,https://wallofsoundau.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Shockone-5.jpg|,https://wallofsoundau.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Shockone-4.jpg|"]

Pendulum