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Inside the foyer at the AIS Arena, the lengthy queue gathered as Van She had begun their set. The fans were excited. It was an all ages show tonight but it wasn’t that obvious from the outset. Everyone was reasonably well behaved.

Van She, who has an excellent record to back them up, got better as they played on, improving their otherwise lack lustre performance on stage to date. Front-man, Nicholas, sounded much more in tune with the music and the sounds came together more freely. Of course Matt (bass player) sounded excellent as always.

While Architecture In Helsinki didn’t grace us with their presence, the Canberra folk didn’t stay away. The Presets selling out the ANU Bar was probably a pretty good indication that the hype for The Presets hasn’t died. The Arena was by no means full but the crowd’s enthusiasm made up for the empty seats.

With new material absent, there was a question lingering…what is going to be so special about this gig that they haven’t done before? The Presets have been touring this album for some time now and surely people aren’t going to keep forking out the dosh to see the same old stuff played in the same old way.

Well they didn’t have to. Julian and Kim are professionals and there was never any doubt that the show wouldn’t be a good one. But this was not just good, it was exceptional.

As usual the set started with the classic beginnings of Talk Like That echoing through the arena. The crowd roared as the pair made their way to the stage with Julian in a bright white sports coat and Kim wearing his usual black t-shirt. The enthusiasm is well and truly alive.

The majority of the tunes erupted with the usual climaxes leading to a dance frenzy, with the floor space covered with hands in the air and people dancing up the aisles and out of their seats. The ability to morph one song into another seamlessly and make their otherwise extremely well known tracks unrecognisable was jaw dropping. You would have been forgiven for mistaking some tracks as new in the first few seconds until they slipped in a clue that reveals the truth such as the familiar grunts of “ah-oo-ah…ah-oo-ah” in Kicking and Screaming.

While the set was relatively unchanged from previous shows, every track was mixed differently. Julian and Kim worked the console with all their tools, using traditional dance sounds, industrial beats and psychedelic experimental madness overlaying their signature sound.

But the music wasn’t the only standout. It was the light show that took most by surprise. Starting out simple yet effective, the lights consisted of waist high posts surrounding the boys. Against the backdrop of the stage were parallel lines of what looked like LCD screens. What at first looked like a reasonable light show, quickly turned into a mesmerising experience. There was just about every pattern, colour and formation you can think off belting out in time with the music along the perfect parallel lines and reflecting off the beams scattered on the stage.

Sadly the day after the Canberra show The Presets announced the rescheduling of their Wollongong and Newcastle shows due to Julian’s voice playing up. This was by no means evident to us in Canberra. Julian’s voice was clear but towards the end of the show he had masked it with so many gizmos it was hard to tell.

As a friend said to me the other day, “Don’t you think The Presets have been well reviewed in the past? Let me save you the time… ‘They’re good’…”. Oh yes they are, and definitely worth missing Mundine vs Geale for!

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