All photos and words by Dana Pacifico.
Darkside is the brainchild of Nicholas Jaar and Dave Harrington. Their experimental electronic beats coupled with Harrington’s sleek guitar rifts become hypnotizing. Darkside opened the show with “Freak, Go Home” and it certainly got the place ready for what we were about to experience. They have this incredible ability to take these long instrumental songs that evolve over time and translate them beautifully live. No song ever felt like it was being played for too long, their timing was spot on. In the live setting they incorporated a deep house rhythm but somehow managed to maintain that dark slow feeling. They were walking a fine line that I feel most acts would have a hard time translating, but Darkside did it with ease and class.
Their light show could not have been anymore perfect for the type of music they perform. It was minimal with lots of smoke, they really only had lights behind them that would silhouette their figures for most of the performance. Hidden for a lot of the show, this large circular mirror hung in between them, when visible it was being projected on and would rotate, the light reflecting back would bathe each and every person in the audience. However, at times the lights weren’t even on, the stage was dark and you could not even see the band but it didn’t even matter because it gave you a moment to close your eyes, feel the beat, and get lost in your head.
Darkside brought out Will Epstein of Highwater (he opened the show) to play the sax for “Greek Light”; it added this whole new sound to the song. Together they took a less than three minute long song on record and expanded it into this much longer, thrilling masterpiece. They closed out the night with the 11-minute long album opener “Golden Arrow”, and it was the perfect song to do so with. “Golden Arrow” has this sexy all-encompassing sound that left people wanting more, but also allowed us to leave fully satisfied, if that makes any sense.
Darkside has a sound all their own that they crafted and fine tuned over the last few years. Their performance was unique which only supported their singular sound. If anyone ever gets the chance to catch a Darkside set, do it, you wont regret it.
Find some more photos from the show below. All are taken by Dana Pacifico. Find more of her work here.
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