Last Thursday, we had the opportunity to check out The Presets’ sold-out gig at New York’s Bowery Ballroom and damn if they still aren’t one of the best live dance acts today.
Last time we caught them in New York, it was 2006 and Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes were bashing it out for 100 or so sweaty hipsters during a late-night set at Cake Shop. The ceiling was low. The stage was, well, non-existent. And the boys made dance music exciting again.
This time, the night after a sold-out set at Music Hall of Williamsburg, the ceilings were much higher, the sound more enveloping and most of the sold-out crowd treated the venue more like a club than a concert hall. (For the record, booking agents, Bowery Ballroom is still the best, but give these guys at least one night at a club fer chrissake!)
With Kim Moyes stage right on drums and Julian Hamilton to his left on synths, effects and vocals, the duo’s rave-friendly sound made the venue seem miniscule by comparison. Combining material from their 2005’s debut Beams and their recently-released Apocalypso, the set wonderfully straddled the line between traditional rock show and DJ set, with the former due to the group’s verse-chorus-verse structure and the latter their extended 4/4 jams. Regardless, on highlights like “Are You The One?,” the entire venue dashed and jumped around like, well, ravers in a friendly mosh pit. Sure, the extended cell phones were just as irritating as glow sticks in the ’90s, but luckily, they were few and far between. Overall, though, the duo successfully continue to draw on their dance influences without being dominated by them. And they got the New York folk to dance uncontrollably. Ask any band. That $#!t ain’t easy.
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