Running ‘Round All Sweaty with The Presets

Holy crap. This concert was a serious sweatfest.

We arrived at the end of the Golden Filter‘s set, which from what I saw and heard sounded pretty good.

The Presets started their set with “Talk Like That”, which is one of my favourite songs. We were up at the front for half of this song where the crowd was extremely physical. Once the song started up, everyone began to jump, sway and push. We wanted more room to bust some dance moves so we moved off to the side where I surprisingly took better pictures than I did at the front (probably because at the front, I was getting pushed so much that my camera couldn’t focus properly). But after a while I gave up on taking pictures and just danced extremely hard to the music.

With the colourful strobe lights and intense music, The Presets pumped the crowd up very easily. Everyone was jumping and dancing (minus two losers in front of us but we’ll pretend they weren’t really there). Another cool thing about this concert was that the Presets seemed genuinely stoked on how energetic and excited the Vancouver crowd was. Keep in mind, I think about 50% of this crowd was from Australia, the home country of the Presets. At one point, one audience member got on their friend’s shoulders and held up an Australian flag. But almost everyone, including the Vancouver peeps, was jumping and dancing to the music.

My favourite song of the show was probably “If I Know You”. It was performed slightly different from the recorded version; this was really nice on my eardrums. I felt like I was lost in the music. Yea, sounds so corny but sometimes you just feel these things at concerts. I’m sure we can all admit to it.

Before The Presets left the stage, they played “My People” which obviously left everyone wanting more because it’s such a pumping song. After about a minute or two of persuading the duo back onto the stage, they came back out and performed “Anywhere”, which was also performed really well. And once again, I was lost in it.

They played every song from their newest album, Apocalypso, which was awesome. After this concert, I actually felt high and I was completely sober. The lights, band members and music got my adrenalin flowing or something. Or maybe I was just dehydrated and delusional from all the dancing and jumping. Either way, it proves how awesome this concert was.

The Presets – Anywhere

“My People”

“If I Know You”

Miami Horror

Miami Horror is comprised of one man from Melbourne, Australia. His influences range from Todd Rundgren to Cut Copy. After listening to his Myspace songs, I’ve noticed that there is an apparent subtle trance twist added to most of his remixes.

“Talk like that” by The Presets is quite an intense electro song. In the original, there is a heavy use of the organ which inevitably adds to the overall sexual creepiness of the song. When I first saw that “Talk like that” was remixed by Miami Horror, I honestly thought that it wouldn’t do the original justice, but I was wrong on that one. Miami Horror remixed this song very well; he took it down a notch on the creepy scale for the masses. He eliminates the organ, replacing it with synthesizers and keys which gave it that subtle trance twist I mentioned earlier.

This remix needs to be played on the dance floors.

The Presets – Talk like that (Miami Horror remix)

You can hear the original here.

Cut Copy and The Presets Concert

The concert I made such a big deal about and still am making a big deal about

My friend and I arrived at the Commodore Ballroom too early (once again). We chilled out for a bit and tried to take pictures of ourselves but failed every time so we decided to get some redbull. After we got our redbull, the first band, Heartbreak, started to play. They consisted of two people, one guy who appreciated anonymous Canadian dance music and another guy who just played around with his laptop, synths and occasionally contributed the odd back-up vocal. They were pretty good but what made them so good and entertaining was the singer. He was dressed in tight dress clothes and knew how to dance. This guy was really getting into his music; so into it that I couldn’t help but laugh a little (but I was laughing with him, not at him…).

After Heartbreak played, the crowd started to move closer to the stage and The Presets came on within half an hour. They started off with “Talk like that” and followed up with “Down Down Down”; these two intense songs started the concert off nicely and it got more intense as the night went on. The Presets had hypnotizing lights and images of creepy skulls on a video screen which went perfectly with their chilling, electronic music.

Once the Presets finished up their set, Cut Copy got to the stage in due time. But once they came on, it was really hard to dance in the crowd. All we could do was jump around and hit other people. So we decided to move to the back so we could dance to our full potential. Once we got there, we could appreciate the concert and music a lot more because we didn’t have someone’s elbow on our shoulders.
Cut Copy was excited and ready to take on the crowd with their melodic dance music. They also had captivating lights and interesting, colourful images on a screen. Out of all the songs they played, I enjoyed “Out there on the ice” and “Lights & Music” the most (maybe because they are my two favourite songs). Cut Copy’s live music produces more feelings of elation than I thought possible.

And now, I can’t stop listening to the Presets or Cut Copy. I’m mostly loving “Talk like that” by The Presets. The alluring beat and inappropriate lyrics keep me moving and working on lame school work I’ve procrastinated.
“Talk Like That”