Long before Ninajirachi ever stepped onto a stage, her relationship with electronic music was mediated through a screen. That same internet-born sensibility defined the night at The Fruit, where she and fellow Australian act 2charm transformed a Durham venue into something less local and more globally online. On February 3rd, headliner Ninajirachi and upcoming duo 2charm brought their influences and sensibilities to Durham, translating both their cultural and digital roots onto the stage proudly.
The night began early, with five total acts, including three local DJs from the Triangle. Their sets felt intentionally curated for the space: a large, open room that resembled an aircraft hangar only with brick accents on the wall. The DJs played a wide variety of genres–house, techno, drum & bass, footwork, and more– playing a mix of genres for a diverse crowd.
The night truly began when 2charm took the stage at 9 p.m. The upcoming duo remains elusive online, only having one interview with a total word count of less than a full page. Diving deeper, 2charm appears to be duo Tim Nelson and Sam "Bolan" Netterfield– a married duo who have also collaborated musically since the early 2010s within the group Cub Sport. Their coming project, self labelled as “indie techno sleaze g00ner pop” leans heavily into glitchcore, hyperpop, and EDM aesthetics. Their sound comes from the eclectic producers they’ve recruited: 1tbsp, simon lam☆, and Ninajirachi herself on their hit single “Boyfriend”. The collaboration between 2charm and Ninajirachi feels natural: A masterful combination of adjacent pop and EDM scenes enhanced by their shared Australian heritage.
In retrospect, their performing confidence made sense. The duo emerged wearing fur hats and UGG boots, an almost grotesque homage to late 2000s to early 2010s internet aesthetics. As their set progressed, layers disappeared from their outfit until they finished nearly naked, save for their hats. The performance leaned heavily into teasing intimacy: near-kisses, exaggerated closeness, and abrupt pullbacks at the last second kept the audience suspended in anticipation.
Clearly choreographed, but closer to performance art than dance, the set felt playful rather than gratuitous. Nearly every track was unreleased, yet it hardly mattered—the crowd remained awestruck throughout. Rather than relying on familiarity, 2charm demanded attention through spectacle and tension, setting a tone that lingered well beyond their set. Following their self-released debut album Star Scum City, the duo seems poised for breakout success.
After the buzz and left by 2charm, Ninajirachi began her set at around 9:45 pm. She built her entrance deliberately, dimming the lights and stretching “London Song” into a nearly ten-minute introduction before revealing herself at the first chorus. Though she did not perform vocals during this tour, instead focusing entirely on mixing, the set felt deeply personal; less like a standard DJ performance and more like an emotional experience. It was a deliberate artistic choice, fully intentional rather than a concession to limitations.
I Love My Computer maps Ninajirachi’s relationship with the internet in all its contradictions: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Opener “London Song” captures the good—online escapism as freedom. An experience mediated through a screen, the song suggests, is still better than no experience at all. It was, after all, the internet that first introduced Ninajirachi to electronic music, discovering the genre through a denim-dyeing tutorial in ninth grade—the same art form that now sustains her career.
“F*ck My Computer” shifts the tone toward the bad, exposing a growing dependency on digital tools and affirmation “No one in the world knows me better”, Nina admits, a bittersweet realization as ultimately the computer is a machine, incapable of truly knowing her. The relationship feels toxic and one-sided, yet impossible to abandon; we are now unable to imagine life without these modern tools.
“Infohazard” confronts the ugly. The track reckons with the internet’s capacity to expose users—often at a young age—to extreme violence, from sites like LiveLeak and beyond. Whether it was you or someone next to you on the bus, the internet enables—and at times forces—us to witness the cruelest corners of the world at the drop of a hat.
Rather than feeling like a standard tour stop, Ninajirachi and 2charm at The Fruit operated as a quiet but deliberate act of cultural translation. In Durham, where electronic shows often lean toward familiar formats, they offered something slightly different. Their performance reflected an Australian club culture shaped by the internet, collaboration, and theatricality; not diluted for the audience, but presented as-is. For a few hours, The Fruit wasn’t just a place to hear music; it proved itself a room capable of holding that difference, that Australian influence, allowing a globally online sensibility to translate cleanly into a physical space.
