Some 'isms are acceptable.
Digitalism arrived at The Edge festival for their sold-out show and lived up to all expectations. A German electro act who sound a bit French, there wasn’t going to be anyway this duo would not offer some electro pop to their waiting public and that’s exactly what the evening contained. Not really any more or less than that but if you got what you expected, its hard to complain isn’t it?
The vocals were thankfully kept to a minimum as the duo got on with what they did best and the crowd seemed happy enough with that. The lights and strobes did a good job at convincing people that it really was a full on club set but the atmosphere would have been so much better if the band had been on stage around 2am. As it was, the set seemed to be an intrusion on the night of most people as opposed to being the centre point. Digitalism can’t be faulted for this but they would have flourished further playing in a club environment and time.
‘Pogo’ was warmly received and a large number of the crowd decided to just that as they made the most of the limited dancing time they had been offered. Some of the songs were merging into each other so well that it was hard to make out where some tracks started and others ended but it was a good representation of the album.
The duo also got well into the swing of things by acting like most tourists during the Edinburgh Fringe festival. Okay, the vast majority of visitors to the city are not there to put on an electro show but the act cheer up the crowd by donning See You Jimmy hats. If you are unaware of these hilarious inventions, it is a tartan Tammy with some ginger hair attached which means it was invented by an Englishman or an idiot. That said, foreigners and stupid Scottish people lap them up so it can’t be all bad.
Credit must be given to them for keeping the hats on for so long as it was a dangerously warm evening in the Liquid Rooms. At just under the hour and no encore, it wasn’t going to be the longest show of the weekend by far but it was enough to keep everyone amused. Perhaps the length of the gig, not helped by a tight curfew in the Liquid Rooms due to club events happening later, curtailed the show as the tracks never really got a chance to get going but it was still a decent enough show by a band well versed at making good electro.