Andy Turner and Ed Handley have been at the front of the British intelligent dance music scene for the past 15 years, producing chilling but melodic music for bedroom listening.
Currently on a European tour, they brought along Brighton-based video artist Bob Jaroc for their Festival show, featuring a huge widescreen projection screen and 5.1 surround sound.
A seated audience of technoheads and students graced the packed auditorium and, without any fuss, the three men walked on to the stage and proceeded to fiddle and twiddle with knobs and keyboards, obscured behind racks and monitors.
The video projections were an integral part of the show, with the surround sound mix less important, as I only really noticed in the opening track, a collage of ring tones and phone noises that disorientated and sprang up from all around.
The video images were largely pre-programmed and tightly integrated with the music with enough variety to make them interesting.
I wasn't sure what they all meant but they were pretty enough to function as eye candy.
Plaid played their better-known material in the latter half of the set, with Zala from their Double Figure LP a popular choice.
However, although the music was entrancing and of high quality, I didn't have the kind of experience I would expect from a live gig.
For all we know, Plaid could have put on a CD and spent the show surfing the web and checking their email and this nagging suspicion resulted in a feeling of dissatisfaction that I couldn't get rid of.
Their current tour is showcasing a forthcoming DVD called Greedy Baby. It was a perfectly pleasurable way to spend a Friday night but I was left thinking that apart from having to clap between songs, the experience wouldn't have been much different from watching the DVD in my living room.
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