On Monday April 13th, Vancouver music heads were treated to some sweet sweet disco, synth pop and industrial goodness courtesy of The Golden Filter and The Presets, which was presented by Sealed With A Kiss at the Commodore Ballroom. I, personally had been looking forward to this concert as soon as it was announced, a couple of reasons: 1. The Golden Filter, I’ve loved all the stuff I’ve heard and their remixes are on point and 2. The last time The Presets rolled into town opening for Cut Copy, I actually didn’t have a chance to catch them because of unforeseen circumstances. So there was a definite anticipation on my part.
The Golden Filter took the stage around 9:15pm and started the night off right with the track “Favourite Things”. Penelope, lead vocal, made the song unique by adding Vancouver into the song as one of her “Favourite Things”. From there the band went into the synth and bass heavy “Hide Me”, which personally is one of my favourite jams and can be heard on their MySpace page as well. The next two songs were on some next level spaceship / flying to the moon deal and is clearly indicated by their titles, “Stardust” and “Moonlight Fantasy”.
As they started to play their next song, there was a bit of familiarity, the sound and some of the lyrics. It wasn’t until the chorus that I finally recognized what I was hearing, The White Stripes “The Hardest Button to Button”. They didn’t perform the song exactly the same, but gave it the usual Golden Filter touch by adding some heavy synths and making it more disco. The group ended their set with the official first single “Solid Gold” and had the crowd amped as everyone was pretty much familiar with the song.
The Golden Filter’s Penelope, was incredibly hard to shoot, well, it was difficult to get shots of her face. It’s become a thing on the internets that nobody has any clear face shots as she generally combs her bangs to cover at least 2/3 of her face, but I was able to get some decent shots. After the photographers left the front area, I did noticed that she let her hair down and opened up a bit. Either way, there’s a definite mysteriousness that surrounds the band. Check out our interview with The Golden Filter dropping later today.
After a quick set change, Julian and Kim took the stage and everyone in the venue bum rushed the dance floor to get ready to get their dance on and they weren’t disappointed as the boys kicked the set off with “Talk Like That”. You could literally feel the floor move like a wave from all the heads jumping in the building. The pace wouldn’t slow as they moved on to “Yippiyo-Ay”, which has its own unique melodic and hypnotic groove, in fact the set didn’t slow down, BPM wise, til they played “A New Sky” (which kinda reminds me a biit of a Gregorian chant or a more updated version of it) , “Girl And The Sea” and their latest single “If I Know You”.
The interaction between the boys and the crowd were incredible as they were feeding off of the energy like it was a drug. The fans would cheer louder and the boys would play harder, which would make the fans cheer louder and the boys would…well you get the idea. Numerous people that I talked to throughout the night and after the night all said that their performance was 100 times better than the last time they were in Vancouver.
Definitely a great concert and worth attending, unfortunately the two groups end their tour by next week, after that The Presets head back to the motherland and do a tour through Australia. As for The Golden Filter, I’ve had the distinct pleasure to hear their current demo album, 7 or so songs, and I can definitely say that this album is something to look out for down the road. For all your concert needs check out Sealed With A Kiss’s website, www.sealedwithakisspresents.com, as they have a ton of great acts coming through in the next little while.
Check out the full set list for both bands below as well as all the pictures. Hit up our Flickr page for past photos, www.flickr.com/photos/killahbeez. Also don’t forget to check us out on Twitter, @Killahbeez.
The Golden Filter Set List:
The Presets Set List
