After letting the gloriously expansive, progressive yet disco hinting debut album from electronic wunderkind Nicholas Jaar and guitarist Dave Harrington wash over you a few times, it can be slightly difficult to imagine the sheer elation these guys produce live on the back of it.
But that’s what Jaar specialises in, taking something brilliant yet minimal on record and allowing in to expand to something huge and euphoric in a live setting.
A predictably slow start allows the, sold out for months, Art School to ease into their flow as the duo tweak out growing bleeps from behind walls of light and smoke.
It’s difficult to make out what the duo are actually doing as Jaar bobs away behind a desk seemingly engulfed in the task at hand, leaving the main focal point as a silhouette of the floppy fringed Harrington ducking around the stage, well that’s unless you’ve come to stare at Jaar’s face, which no doubt a few have, the American-Chilean is somewhat of a poster boy in the minimal electronic world.
However, we don’t wait long for real focal points as an impressive lighting show combined with a large circular mirror, spark real mesmerising images that reincarnate the artwork from Psychic.
It’s about this point when you start to feel a real sense of build in the set as the beat grows almost organically into something massive – it’s also about this point when the fire alarm goes off and we have to evacuate the building.
So, rather than wait about in the bitter cold sporting just a t-shirt we jaunt along to CCA for a quick drink before investigating what’s happening – turns out they’re going back on, albeit too late for about half the crowd who’ve disappeared for public transport, all too aware that Darkside are scheduled to DJ in Saint Judes after the show and are unlikely to have time to reappear.
What we are treated to after the restart blows it all through the roof as those who re-enter the reasonably recently re-opened Vic Bar experience an almost intimate set with the duo straining the reach that huge sound they had almost reached previously.
They manage to do this with an accomplished zeal and deliver a powerful and memorable performance that leave those there overjoyed on their way to destroying themselves on Bath Street or those who had to leave no doubt overwhelmed with envy.
Tonight isn’t the galaxy exploring, indulgently exquisite modernist set pulled straight from Psychic, it’s a lesson in how to create euphoria, yes the interruption may have both helped and hindered Darkside but tonight they create an atmosphere that you just don’t get before midnight on a Wednesday in Glasgow.
Words: Iain Dawson
Photos: Daphne Michalaki
