Pendulum ‘Inertia Australian Tour’

Hordern Pavilion, Sydney 05/03/2026.

It’s time to come alive and call on an Arc Angel ‘cause this ‘bout to go Napalm!

That’s right, ‘cause after inactivity on the studio album front, it may have taken a while for a new album to start moving out into the world, but like the definition of the word inertia, it’s huge and it’s not slowing down easily! Swinging from one genre extreme to another, whilst ultimately forever meeting in the middle before the cycle starts anew like a pendulum. Explosive, multi-genre infusing Australian band Pendulum, swing back home off the back of their huge solid-mass of moving musical moving parts, that is their first studio album in over a decade, ‘Inertia’.

I remember reading that in the writing and recording process, if a song was too rock, too techno, too trance, too metal, or too drum and bass, it was scrapped. As a result, you have a cataclysmic nuclear reaction of genres that put together are unstoppable!

Unlike the definition of the word inertia, things don’t start off slow and sluggish. No, the band start the musically chemical infusion with the raucous, bombastic sure-to-be timeless anthem, ‘Napalm’ to my ecstatic delight! Unlike the usual recipe of an album tour concert, typically opening the show with the first song off the touring album, ‘Napalm’ sets the energy in the venue off like a bomb! (pun intended)

Like the definition of the word inertia, a large solid mass once built up momentum, is far harder to slow or stop. This is the same for Pendulum especially igniting the energy with ‘Napalm’, and is not showing any signs of relenting!

Why is that you ask? Pendulum not only perform in mastery with each other, but amidst top-tier lighting effects from countless sources, including several tower-like structures with LED lights and ropes on them on stage. They don’t just interact with the audience between songs, no, it’s as simple, yet not simple as the music they perform and how they perform it.

Like a pendulum, the central solid musical object swings back and forth from one extreme to another. This being very much the case tonight in the songs the band dish out, like one of my favourites from the new album ‘Inertia’, ‘Arc Angel’ with its entrancing, emotion-provoking trance-like synth hook melody, which lead singer Rob impressively plays on his Keytar. Then to tracks like ‘Tarantula’, with its mix of hip-hop and reggae colliding beautifully with drum and bass. We’re also treated to tracks like ‘Halo’ which traditionally features Bullet For My Valentine, and mixes drum and bass plus psychedelic synth hooks, with BFMV’s signature heavy screams. But wait, there’s more! More?! ‘Save The Cat’, ‘The Island’, ‘Witchcraft’ and ‘Watercolour’ among others, are clear demonstrations of how Pendulum blend so many genres and sub-genres.

“But Brendan, there are heaps of drum and bass artists/bands and bands in general that blend multiple genres together, what makes Pendulum so special?” Well, there are plenty of drum and bass plus general artist/bands that blend genres sure, but how many can you name that play all these layers, including all the complex electronic elements… as a four-piece band. A drummer, guitarist, bassist and singer/keyboardist? And I ask you what’s missing? If you guessed that a DJ is missing, well yeah, all the complex sounds are performed live, using the aforementioned instruments. And have you thought of any other artists/bands who do what Pendulum do? …I’ll wait… exactly, there quite simply, isn’t.

My friend did notice Rob looking at his guitarist at least once questioningly when the guitarist seemingly stuffed up a note, and sure, some of the synth hook melodies in some songs I felt could’ve been a touch louder, but everything else was ace!

At the end of the day, or should I say, night, I had so much fun dancing and jumping along constantly throughout the show with my friends, and our energies were really like a pendulum. We fed off each other’s ecstasy and sent it back to each other tenfold, with the common balancing counterweight being the band’s music and performance.

Even when the show finishes and the inertia abates, it really doesn’t feel like it has at all!

The thing about inertia is once it gets started, good luck stopping it. And just like a pendulum…

I’m certain it will be continuing to swing back and forth for a long time to come, their momentum everlasting!

Keen to see where the pendulum sweeps through next!