Vancouver, Commodore Ballroom, Thursday, October 9th, presented by Sealed with a Kiss. The final leg of the Cut Copy & The Presets North American tour officially dubbed “Modular presents Cut Copy & The Presets”.  The tour kicked off on September 13th and embarked on a 20-date tour across the US and Canada, before both label mates, Cut Copy and The Presets, go their separate ways overseas. This wasn’t the first time either groups have stopped in Vancouver as The Presets have made their way here several times and this was Cut Copy’s second stop in Vancouver in the same year.

Kicking and Screaming

So right off the bat I have to say I missed a few songs from The Presets, not due to tardiness or troubles at the gate, but that’s neither here nor there. When I finally did get in it was a party atmosphere as I could feel the dance floor from underneath me moving as if it were a small wave. When I made my way up to front I could see drummer Kim Moyes standing in front of his drums and riling up the crowd and getting as much energy as he could, while Julian was doing his thing on the keyboard.

They performed an array of songs as they went through “This Boy’s in Love” and “Kicking and Screaming”, this particular song had the crowd going wild and literally kicking and screaming as Kim left his drums for the song to switch up instruments and as my friend AJK said “freaked it on what looked to be the analog synth staple, the Korg MS-20”. Kim would do this throughout the night, abandoning the drums for the Korg MS-20.

Other recognizable jams that they performed were mostly off of the Apocalypso album such as “Talk Like That”, “Together” and “My People” which again had the crowd singing along and wilding out hard. A mistake on my part, I was wearing a flannel shirt as it was damn cold outside, but I neglected to check this piece of blanket wrapped around me and damn near drowned in my own sweat from all the dancing with various peoples in attendance. The vibe was mad cool and chill, total party peoples in the house. As The Presets set drew to an end, drummer Kim threw out his drumsticks for a few lucky fans and Julian thanked the crowd for their energy and supporting the music.

Lights and Music

After a brief 10 – 15 min intermission the stage lights went down and through the darkness you could see Mitchell, Tim and Dan walk out on the stage and assume their instruments as the noise level in the venue cranked up to a 50 on a scale of 1 to 10. In the middle of the cheers the group quickly went into “Nobody Lost, Nobody Found”. The energy was definitely incredible as the crowd was fist pumping and dancing along. As the song ended they went straight into “Far Away”, which is easily one of my favorite songs on the album, although I can honestly say I love most of the tracks off of In Ghost Colours evenly.

From there they flipped the script and took everyone on a journey back to their first LP, Bright Like Neon Love, and performed “Time Stands Still”. The set would continue with “So Haunted” and “Strangers in the Wind”, which would lead to the group taking a short break as Dan thanked everyone for supporting the group and showing them all this love, as well as mentioning that this was the final North American stop. At which point he said something that made me laugh so hard I almost peed myself, he yelled out “DISCO TIME!” and then Cut Copy went into “Saturday” from Bright Like Neon Love.

Continuing to jam through their songs including “Lights and Music” and “Future”, which quite a few people noticed was a punchier and more upbeat version then the original, this ended their set, but the crowd cheered louder and louder. The boys from Australia didn’t disappoint as they came back out and performed “Hearts on Fire” for their encore. The show was great, the stage setup, wonderful, a complete “Lights and Music” show.

After the show it’s the…

The official after party held at Republic was also being promoted by Sealed with a Kiss. The after party also featured a DJ set from Kim of The Presets as well as Tim and Dan from Cut Copy. But here’s where our story dies, as management from DHM told us that we were good to get in and indeed we were on the list. The problem really lied with their overzealous bouncer that decided not to let us in, even after knowing that we had promised DHM that we would review the after party. When we eventually did get in, 25 mins later, we had basically missed the DJ set from Kim. Nonetheless everyone was still buzzing from the concert and that’s all that really mattered.

The Presets played a great set and were entertaining throughout the night. This was also the case with Cut Copy as they really utilized the crowds energy by putting their all into the set. Although I will have to say that I would have loved to have heard more older tracks specifically “1981″ and “Rendezvous”, but I can’t complain the performance was, for a lack of a better word, awesome. A big thanks goes out to Malcolm at Sealed with a Kiss, check out their website for a list of upcoming shows, www.sealedwithakisspresents.com.

If you like the review please vote for me here.

Peace.

David Thai
www.killahbeez.com

P.S.: Pictures are here on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/killahbeez

P.S.S.: As usual I try and get the playlist for all you folks out there to re-live the experience or for those that didn’t make it to have an idea of how the set broke down. Since I missed out on a portion of The Presets set, I will only be able to provide Cut Copys list.

• Nobody Lost, Nobody Found
• Far Away
• Time Stands Still
• So Haunted
• Unforgettable Season
• Strangers in the Wind
• That Was Just A Dream
• Saturdays
• Feel The Love
• Out There On The Ice
• Lights and Music
• Future
• Hearts on Fire - Encore

Going to see Cut Copy with The Presets tonight and am pretty amped up. I’ve been listening to some old Cut Copy stuff to brush up and came across this track “1981″. Yeah I know Cut Copy isn’t that old, but hell this track came out in 2001, that’s 7 years. Here’s a brief history lesson. Cut Copy was a side project that Dan Whitford, then a DJ and graphic designer, started and  from there released the EP, I Thought of Numbers. From there he recruited additional members Tim Hoey, Mitchell Scott and Bennett Foddy (left group in mid-’04) in 2003 and released their debut LP, Bright Like Neon Love. Then in 2008 came the release of In Ghost Colours and the eventual acceptance from mainstream media. Anyways check out the video above and hear where the sounds of Cut Copy originated and after that, go and check out our interview that we did with them earlier this year in May, here.

People who know me on even an acquaintance level are well aware of how passionate, critical and even borderline asshole I can be when it comes to opinions on music and giving out my self-proclaimed coveted stamp of approval - so any insinuations of a fluff piece can be checked at the door.

With that being said, my proverbial ink pad has almost run completely dry with how much I’ve been frantically stamping away at everything Australian trio Cut Copy has put out ever since I became aware of them earlier this year. They’ve been around for a minute now, so I had some backtracking to do once I was introduced to their recently released 2nd full-length album In Ghost Colours and its inspirational precursor Dj set So Cosmic.

After digging up some of their previous and equally amazing material, I became even more interested in how these guys put together such a distinctive album this go around and I was able to squeeze in a sit down with them to remedy that curiosity just a few hours prior to their April 29th, 2008 show in Vancouver, B.C.

Click on through for the exclusive interview.

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