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“My, how you’ve grown,” Julian Hamilton intones in tonight’s set opener Talk Like That. It’s a sentiment The Presets would have heard a lot in the last few years. The first time this reviewer saw the duo was on a scattered dancefloor at Candy’s Apartment in 2003. Now, six years later, they’ve graduated to three sold-out Hordern Pavilions. Next stop Acer, then.

Come to think of it, “My, how you’ve grown” is probably what most of the crowd gathered tonight hear each Christmas. If your ID isn’t fake, you’re in the minority. Say what you will about the youth of today, but their Passion Pop-ed, cheap pinger-munching, short-shorts-in-winter-wearing enthusiasm is pretty infectious. Who else would dance so indiscriminately to the fill-in CD between acts? Hands pump the air right throughout Architecture In Helsinki’s sugar-rush of a support slot, as the white-clad collective bop through their proficient pop. “Next up is The Presets,” they slyly announce, knowing full well there’ll be an ear-mincing scream in return.

When the stars of the show actually appear, the hometown welcome is overwhelming. Kim Moyes takes his post at a drumkit set amongst strips of neon light, as the church organ opening of Talk Like That shudders through the room. “Uh-oh!” goes Hamilton, joined in chorus by all gathered. It’s an Apocalypso barrage to begin, with Yippiyo-Ay, Eucalyptus and A New Sky in quick succession. Before long, the floor is a heaving, overheated mass of barely-legals.

Despite concerns about his voice earlier in the week, Hamilton is in sharp form. Girl And The Sea floats by with ease, before we get set highlight If I Know You. Absent from the duo’s 2008 tour, it has been given a tingly rework with Moyes on keys. Without the embellishment of drums, it’s just clean, icy synths and melodramatic vocals.

Are You The One is a reminder of how much more restrained Hamilton has become in his movements. Back in the Hopetoun Hotel days, he would prowl the stage like a man possessed; now the most you get is a clenched fist and a saunter round the keyboard. An Auto-Tuned rendition of Beat On/Beat Off segues neatly into the electro stomp of Kicking and Screaming, which predictably gets a reaction much like the one in the video. If you thought unnaturally orange girls on shoulders was a festival thing, you haven’t seen a Presets concert in 2009.

After My People sees the pair off in ecstatic style, they return with the pulsing strobes and trancey throb of Anywhere. The encore peaks as ever with I Go Hard, I Go Home, Hamilton gives a quick but sincere thank you, and the house lights come up on the carnage. The Presets may have grown, but they haven’t lost the spark.