The Red Marquee was jam-packed during Hurts’ Saturday night gig, with the crowd stretching almost back as far as the trees next to the International Food Court. Initially, it seemed the English synth-pop duo was gonna deliver a performance that relied on the tried and trusted ’80s romantic ballads of yesteryear, with singer Theo Hutchcraft leading things from the front with a full set of lungs and a dashing pair of black leather gloves.

After a slow and soulful introductory few songs, the pair decided to up the tempo considerably by throwing some decidedly heavy basslines into the compositions. This immediately raised a question: Is this even the same band? You’d think that by introducing such a tinnitus-inducing wall of sound that the introduction of a violin at this point was probably unecessary, and yet they persisted. For the record, I certainly couldn’t hear it.

All in all, it was a bizarre mix of old-fashioned new wave sounds infused with contemporary (read: chest-poundingly loud) bass. The aural performance was definitely dated in scope but at the same time it got the crowd up and moving, and for that I don’t think whoever was in charge of the scheduling did a bad job at all. If nothing else, it certainly got the party started…