DARKSIDE

On 14 July, Nicolás Jaar returns to Vilnius with DARKSIDE after more than a decade away. The concert, set in the Grand Courtyard of the Palace of the Grand Dukes, will be the band’s only show in the Baltic states. The last time DARKSIDE visited Lithuania, the group was in the midst of its final run of concerts before going on hiatus. It now returns with a new line-up and a new album, “Nothing”: alongside Jaar and Dave Harrington, the band now includes Tlacael Esparza.
The group comes to Vilnius to present precisely that record. “Nothing” is DARKSIDE’s third album and the first made as a trio. It grew out of improvisation, spontaneous sessions and a new chemistry between the three musicians. With that, the internal logic of the band’s sound shifted too. There is more freedom in this record, more bodily pulse, and a greater openness to the unexpected.
Critics have already hailed “Nothing” as DARKSIDE’s best album yet (“Stereogum”). “Billboard” wrote that it mirrors the uneasy state of the world today, while answering it with some of the most vibrant music of the band’s decade-plus career. “Pitchfork” described it as a raw, surprisingly funky and desperately hopeful response to the chaos of the 2020s.
From “Psychic” to “Spiral”, DARKSIDE has always made music that resists easy definition. Their sound brings together electronics, psychedelia, dub, expressive guitar work and a song form that is forever slipping out of fixed shape. “Nothing” carries that language forward and opens a new chapter for the band. It sounds darker, looser and even more assured.
In the Grand Courtyard of the Palace of the Grand Dukes, this concert will offer a rare chance to experience a group that has returned from a long silence with renewed energy, a new album, and that same singular gift for building music out of tension, space and sensation.