Pendulum in full swing

Start with the heavy drum-and-bass beats of The Prodigy, pile on the synthesized sound effects of Ratatat and top it all off with the Zeppelin-esque authenticity of a live guitar. Add a ridiculous laser light show and a packed 10,000-person dance tent at the 2008 Coachella festival, and there you have it — the UK-based Pendulum’s anticipated United States debut.

With their roots stemming from Perth, Australia, Pendulum has since relocated to the U.K., where their sophomore album, In Silico (released in May), went direct to the No. 2 slot on the U.K. Album charts. Kicking off their first-ever U.S. tour with their first stop at the Middle East in Cambridge last night, the band wonders if this country is ready for such a harsh, new sound.

‘America is very difficult to crack because it’s just so big,’ bass guitarist, DJ and co-producer Gareth McGrillen said. ‘But based on the responses we’ve gotten in Japan and across Europe, where people are coming to our live shows to get taken out of their lives and really thrown about into music, I think American kids are finally ready for what we’ve got.’

With a sound influenced by everything from heavy metal guitar riffs to bluesey rhythms, Pendulum’s new album, as well as their live shows, never stop surprising the listener.

‘We love to contrast things, so if something is perfect for the electric guitar we will intentionally play it with a synthesizer,’ McGrillen said.

The band’s sound isn’t just dance music, and it isn’t just rock, but a perfect mixture, forming exactly what the group missed from the music that was already out there. This new sound, drawing a ‘motley crue’ of metal-heads, hippie kids and punk rockers has taken the band out of the confines of genre and forced listeners to escape into a pure love of music.

‘All of our fans are kind of like us — they like rock, they like punk — but there’s something about the energy that they all kind of like. That’s where the whole pendulum project stems from,’ McGrillen said.

‘ Energy — the key word in describing Pendulum’s music — is what has drawn masses of people away from the main stages at festivals like Coachella, Reading and Radio 1’s Big Weekend and opened their eyes to this underdog group’s rave performance.

‘We weren’t even sure if it was going to be one of those sounds that even works outside of a club with a perfect sound system, but it works perfectly, even more than in the studio,’ McGrillen said. ‘We can turn the whole festival upside down.’

Tackling a smaller venue like the Middle East is no challenge for the group — though they may have to tone down the speakers, dull the lightshow and tranquilize the moshers a bit.’

‘As long as the stage is big enough to fit our mass of equipment, then we’re good,’ said McGrillen. ‘But our sound adapts — that’s the beauty of it. We can fit in anywhere.’