Live Review: The Presets

12 February 2013 | 9:28 am | David Fegan

No rock star egos here – you can’t argue with two guys giving the people what they want, when they want it, and The Presets are mechanically on time all night.

More The Presets More The Presets

After a sold-out show last night, The Presets take the slow but sure approach in bringing tonight's crowd at the Palace Theatre to a sweaty conclusion. Make no mistake, there is still an epic and slightly gothic build up to opener Push, off new album Pacifica, the lyrics “In response to what you did/An impressive operation”, reflecting the band's current situation nicely – four visual screens beam out from the stage and an exotic army of lights reflect the various moods of the music.

Push is followed by A New Sky, and as Girl And The Sea is kicking in, it's becoming harder to differentiate between Julian Hamilton's vocals and some of the more passionate crowd members endowed with all-conquering voice boxes. Technically, The Presets are very impressive and write very smart music, with dancing not only an option but an open invitation, and no one is in any real position to refuse. Unfortunately, getting on someone's shoulders has apparently become such a dangerous pastime that security are practically jumping out of their skin to save these reckless daredevils from themselves (this is not to be misconstrued as ignorance towards serious crowd situations that occur).

The Presets continue to get all four levels moving and are showing no signs of a post-show hangover from last night. In fact, Kim Moyes emphasises a pre-drinking, drip drying ritual of several icy beers as he moves between his mic'd-up-to-the-teeth drum kit and front of stage duties, while Hamilton nails every vocal, bosses the keys and shows impressive hip flexibility and charisma.

If I Know You and especially This Boy's In Love are early highlights, as material from Pacifica also features heavily in the first half of the set, including latest singles Promises and the tribal electro of Ghosts. As the hits start rolling in with more frequency, the workout is kicked up several gears, with Hamilton acknowledging this after the duo tear the house down with My People.

Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter

The crowd is further energised as the band flex their muscles in the second half of the set, songs such as the aforementioned My People, as well as Are You The One? and Fast Seconds displaying the harder edges of the band. AO is a nice counterpoint to the wonderfully menacing vibe the second half of the set cultivates, and Youth In Trouble, also off Pacifica, appears.

Yippiyo-Ay, Kicking & Screaming and Talk Like That complete the joyful workout, or so it is thought until a very brief foot stamping cry for an encore is instantaneously met by the super punctual duo. No rock star egos here – you can't argue with two guys giving the people what they want, when they want it, and The Presets are mechanically on time all night, combining Steamworks and Anywhere for an encore before wishing everyone a safe trip home to boot.