With a conceptual event, you never know quite how it’s going to go. Organising a concert where the idea is for everyone to sit in total darkness aims for resounding success, but flirts with complete disaster. While the concept comes with a specific set of challenges, thanks to the quality of the music this Pitchblack proved to be absorbing, rare and immersive.

The layout was certainly unusual, with the performers taking the place of bartenders behind a u-shaped bar in a very small room. Fairy lights on the top of the bar were the only lights, lending the room a very warm and atmospheric feel. It was a little surprising when the first performer, HazeL, took to the stage, and these were also switched off. The room was in such total blackness that she had trouble putting her capo in the right place, and a couple of audience members could be heard tripping in the darkness. Not very practical, but the upshot was that, being completely unable to see the performer, the audience listened far more attentively, and silently drank in her rootsy folk.

Although some in the audience loved the absolute blackness, it was problematic. It did in some sense amplify HazeL’s performance, but the total removal of the visual aspect of performance in some ways detracted from the performance as a whole. The next performer, Joe Cherry, was faintly illuminated by the Maschine rigged up above his piano, and this near-total darkness was far more comfortable, allowing the audience to immerse themselves while still being able to watch the artist. Cherry played an imaginative and heartfelt set, a very capable keys player with a soft and emotive voice, who used his sampler to add new depths to his performance.

Last up were three rappers from the local hip hop label Yogocop, who MC’d over some great live mixing from producer Mr. Slips. At this point, wanting to ramp up the energy, they abandoned the darkness and left the fairy lights on for their set. They played through a variety of Yogocop releases, all high-energy, smart, and lyrically dextrous. The three were very comfortable performing together, chiming in on each others’ verses and backing each other up as effective hype-men. Ultimately their songs moved between dark observational humour, light-hearted wordplay, and occasionally vicious social critique.

They offered an energetic contrast to what had begun as an introspective and serious musical experience. The sensory deprivation that is the basis of Pitchblack does encourage active and attentive listening, but too much would have become self-indulgent. In the end the balance was right, and gave the event a very unique, even special, character.
Ben Noble