Darkside took the pitch-black stage awash in fog, quickly taking to their respective synthesizers to churn out eerie, crackling electronic noise. A pair of yellow spotlights backlit the duo, electronic musician Nicholas Jaar and Dave Harrington, a musician on both synth and guitar. Together they make up Darkside, an experiment in both music and aesthetic that thrives in the dark.
Fresh off their 2013 debut record, "Psychic," Darkside played the Doug Fir Lounge Thursday night to a sold-out audience. Darkness was a theme – the stage was lit only by the two constantly-dimming spotlights, the occasional foot-level strobes, and a beam of blue light, projected from behind the audience into a giant, rotating mirror behind the musicians.
Darkside's music walks the line between ambient, dance and rock. Their results are incredible to listen to through headphones, but it's hard to get a handle on how to listen to it live. At times it seems like the duo would benefit from a more intimate venue, where the audience could focus on the intricacies of their music. But the heavier beat that falls occasionally, perfectly, into place means the crowd needs room to move – because they will move.
Much of the crowd at the Doug Fir bounced between rapt attention and restless disinterest throughout the duo's set, chattering through the more contemplative segments of songs, whipping their focus back onstage every time the beat dropped.
It was a dark, ethereal jam session, spotted with intense energy, not unlike a raw, tribal expression of the range of human emotion. In that way the music seemed to connect with everyone in attendance, no matter how much patience they seemed to have for the meditative moments.
By the end of the hour-long set, the crowd, enrapt and bathed completely in darkness, begged and screamed for more.