When Live Music Happens in the Dark: Autechre’s Polemical 2025 Performances
British electronic duo Autechre has been touring the world for the better part of this year, and will continue in 2026, but their performances have stirred some controversy among fans and casual listeners alike, namely for being set entirely in darkness.
By Jeremy Young
Autechre is one of the most beloved electronic music acts of all time. Formed in Manchester in 1987, Rob Brown and Sean Booth have consistently pushed the envelope of innovation in the realms of ambient, breakbeat, techno and abstract IDM, across both recordings and live performances.
The English duo has been back on tour performing around the world in 2025 and continuing on with more dates in 2026, and has had to consistently expand their live dates due to high demand, with most of these shows selling out mere hours after being announced. Autechre is one of the most influential electronic acts of this century surely, but fans are also undoubtedly flocking to see them this year due to the unusual details surrounding their performances this year.
Namely, that the venues are set in pitch blackness, so audiences can’t even see the performers, let alone fellow fans, and that listeners have to comply with rules such as no unnecessary movements, and no photography or video.
Suffice to say, paying top dollar to go “see” a live performance you can’t even watch, while standing for over an hour listening to rhythms you can’t dance to, might not exactly rub all concert-goers the right way.
I’ve been following Reddit threads and social media mentions of people’s experiences on this world tour all year to track how people actually feel about this kind of thing. Unsurprisingly, some describe seeing Autechre live as “impressive” and “mesmerising,” praising their unique approach to live sound design, improvisation and rapid changes to rhythms, tempos, and beat architecture. While others felt the darkness and rules-based approach to the experience made it “less enjoyable,” “difficult,” “annoying,” and “exhausting.”
And then there’s the fact that you’re spending an insurmountable amount of time in close proximity with strangers you can’t even see. Reddit user Equivalent_Delay549 said this of his Austin show experience:
“I must admit I am no AE_LIVE connoisseur, but I was a little disappointed by the show…It did not help that a lot of people were talking (even after moving to different spots) and at least 30% of people had a localizable bad odour. (One guy smelled like a rotting fruit I had forgotten under a pile of homework papers in my locker for a whole year, back in middle school. Congratulations).”
Responses in this thread were varied, but user blacksunr1se’s positive rebuttal stood out:
“This was my 6th time seeing them since 99. Each time has been incredible for lack of a better word, but this, was some other level shit. Severe and relentless. This certainly was the darkest in tone/feel, the heaviest, and most aggressive, and longest set I’ve experienced from them. Very powerful…insane spatial effects, at times I found the experience disorienting physically and cerebrally, incredible textures, kicks that could decapitate you, total wormhole business…On a scale of 1 to 10 it was a 100. I felt destroyed the next day.”
In San Francisco, user Fit-Buddy-7963 complained that the sound was not optimal, which in an acousmatic environment designed for sound to be experienced in a granular, detailed way, sort of defeats the entire purpose:
“I went to see Autechre in SF yesterday, expected to have fun, and didn’t!… The bass was too loud… it drowned out everything else. I couldn’t hear any of the textural details, and even basic things like snares and other percussion were totally buried.”
Then again, Ok_Association7982‘s experience of the sound in Mexico City was intensely positive, transformative:
“It was freaking brutal, hammer hits straight to the skull from start to finish. I’m a new person now. Thanks ae.”
Here’s a taste of what all that actually looks and sounds like:
Over the years, beyond their widely-acclaimed recorded ouput, Autechre have explored a wide variety of approaches to live concerts, from virtually beat-less ambient sets to highly improvised or iterative collages of rhythms and synthetic sounds, and now with a fully sensorial approach in the pitch black setting of the event space, standing room only. It’s hard to predict how the experience might find you at any given moment, which is why it’s important to keep an open mind about one’s expectations.
And that’s one of the biggest draws for a global community of electronic music fans hungering for something out of the ordinary. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that in any live performance context, unpredictability and finding new ways to express one’s sound, are both hugely advisable approaches for all bands and artists.
In some ways, Autechre’s current tour is a microcosm of the kinds of experiments most artists should try while on tour, engaging with audiences in an up-close-and-personal environment. But is performing completely in darkness going a little too far?
I prompted a few more folks on the internet to see if they would tell me how they really felt about the shows, to get a sense of the general vibes around this kind of polemical live music experiment.
How Fans Really Feel
1. How was your experience of seeing Autechre overall?
Thomas, Vancouver: “The venue I saw them perform at (Hollywood Theatre) had two, not so dim, exit signs on either side of the stage. So the “pitch dark” atmosphere was not quite delivered. However, it was still pretty dark and the crowd was densely packed. There was still enough space that a small few of us could move and dance, but most people chose to stay still. Overall, i had a very positive experience in this albeit strange context.”
Sam, Montreal: “I got an email a few days before letting me know about the whole lights-out thing. My first thought was: that seems a bit pretentious, but then again, if anyone has earned the right to be a little pretentious in that way, it’s Autechre, so fair enough. The actual experience was fine: I have no complaints about the lights-out element, and can see why an artist might choose to do that. That being said, the music itself, I felt, could have been a lot more interesting. The performance was almost completely devoid of any space or dynamics, and was pretty well just balls-to-the-wall maximalist experimental mayhem for 80 minutes straight. Nearing the end, myself (and others around me) were very ready for everything to wrap up: when you’re at 100 the whole time instead of bringing things down and back up, it gets boring eventually.”
Hesam, Toronto: “It was out of this world! Definitely one of the most unique experiences I’ve had and I’ve been to quite a few shows in my time. But this was not only about music, it was something more. The only way I could describe it is as if I was abducted by two aliens for two hours who showed me the secrets of the universe and then beamed me back to earth a different person. I can’t really pinpoint any one part of it or talk about specifics as it was a holistic and interwoven stream of time. It was as if the whole two hours happened in a blink of an eye, which kind of connects to the lack of any light too I think.”
2- Besides being strange at first, was the experience of engaging with beat-driven electronic music in the pitch black interesting for you?
Nikolay, Amsterdam: “I would never feel comfortable being in a packed crowd with no lights, and very poorly air conditioned room.. so i did find this experience rather pretentious and demanding from the audience. I stayed in the very back of the venue in order to avoid the crowd and so I could feel comfortable to exit if I wanted to.”
Hesam, Toronto: “After a bit of time passed and I got used to the darkness, my pupils adjusted and I started to see the body shapes and silhouettes of the people around me. After securing a bit of space around me, I started to move my body and dance. It was a weird kind of dance but that was more so because of how weird Autechre’s music is haha the darkness really didn’t bother me as when I go to raves, I usually close my eyes when I dance so dancing in darkness felt pretty natural.”
Thomas, Vancouver: “Autechre guided us through the darkness with a vortex of textures and controlled, rhythmic chaos. No light show could have elevated, or kept up with the constant change of Autechres performance. It really did not need anything more than what could be heard.”
Sam, Montreal: “I mean, it was barely ‘beat-driven’. It was almost strictly abstract beats, not something you would ever dance to, except in a wacky, interpretative way, so I don’t think we lost anything by being in the dark (and may have actually gained something).”
3- Did it make you rethink the idea of what live performances should or could be?
Thomas, Vancouver: “Autechre is breaking new ground as far as electronic performances go. They may be opening a door for many artists who are inspired by their processes. Artists should be emboldened by this to go deep into creating a performance and experience that is uniquely theirs, as Autechre have.”
Hesam, Toronto: “I think it was for sure a super bold experimentation in how a live electronic music show could be like. There has been a lot of discourse about the formats electronic musicians can adopt for live performances. Particularly because unlike more traditional genres of music, those musicians don’t have that much “act” on the stage. Robert Henke (Monolake) has been an innovative force in that area and if I’m not mistaken, he even has research papers and manifestos about it. I would say Autechre’s decision to play in full darkness definitely is a unique approach to that problem. Their way of doing it of course, like their music, is extremely experimental. And like their music can be controversial.”
4- Did anything notable happen at that show? what was the most memorable thing about it?
Nikolay, Amsterdam: “In Amsterdam the sound got completely cut off, so everyone walked outside and i just felt like a guiness rather than going back in. Russel Haswell warming up was clearly the highlight of that night and that Guinness was very fresh!”
Sam, Montreal: “I think the best part was the 10 minutes or so of anticipation before they actually came on stage, and then maybe the first 30 minutes or so of the show, before it was obvious that they were just going to do the one same thing the whole time.”
Thomas, Vancouver: “The audience was filled with nerdy artists who were all a pleasure to be around. Me and a couple of strangers were cooling off outside the theatre, sharing our favourite moments of the set, when Sean Booth walked out. He heard all our raving and praise and Rob came out shortly after. I ran off to my car to grab my copy of Quaristice. I brought it over for them to sign and thanked them for their performance. They were very humble and seemed glad that everyone enjoyed the show.”
Hesam, Toronto: “One of my companions and I, while dancing, started to touch each other’s hands in sync with the music. Because of the total darkness, it felt like my other senses were heightened and being tactile while being blasted by Autechre’s frequencies elevated the experience by a multitude. Again, it was a unique and otherworldly time.”
Autechre 2026 Tour Dates — courtesy of Bandsintown
02/04/2026 – Tokyo, Japan @ Zepp DiverCity
02/05/2026 – Osaka, Japan @ Yogibo Meta Valley
09/24/2026 – Liège, Belgium @ OM
09/25/2026 – Zürich, Switzerland @ Rote Fabrik
09/26/2026 – Munich, Germany @ Muffathalle
09/27/2026 – Prague, Czechia @ Lunchmeat Festival / Concert Hall
09/28/2026 – Wrocław, Poland @ Zaklęte Rewiry
09/29/2026 – Vienna, Austria @ Gasometer
09/30/2026 – Zagreb, Croatia @ Tvornica Kulture
10/01/2026 – Belgrade, Serbia @ Ložionica
10/02/2026 – Skopje, North Macedonia @ MKC
10/03/2026 – Athens, Greece @ Universe
10/04/2026 – Thessaloniki, Greece @ Block33
10/06/2026 – Sofia, Bulgaria @ Toplocentrala
10/07/2026 – Bucharest, Romania @ Club Guesthouse
10/09/2026 – Ljubljana, Slovenia @ Cukrarna
10/10/2026 – Bologna, Italy @ Estragon
10/11/2026 – Milan, Italy @ Alcatraz
10/12/2026 – Geneva, Switzerland @ L’Usine
10/13/2026 – Marseille, France @ Cabaret Aléatoire
10/14/2026 – Paris, France @ Bataclan
10/15/2026 – Nantes, France @ Le Lieu Unique
10/16/2026 – Lille, France @ L’Aéronef
10/17/2026 – Nijmegen, Netherlands @ Doornroosje
10/20/2026 – Dublin, Ireland @ Vicar Street
10/22/2026 – Cardiff, Wales, UK @ Depot
10/24/2026 – London, England, UK @ Magazine
