PHENOMENAL! They were SO good! It was a small club and everyone was just pogo jumping almost the entire time.
The first band were called Heartbreak. Just 2 guys, the singer was pretty much a huge dork, but they put all they had into it.
Verrrrry 80s! They were like Ah-Ha meets Depeche with part Peter Shilling vocals and part singer from Bronski Beat vocals. The songs were fun and dancey, but completely lacking in anything other than being drenched in early-80s nostalgia.
I guess this was a "co-headline" show, so up next were The Presets who were absolutely great! I hadn't heard their stuff before, but they (also 2 guys and from the same label as Cut//Copy) put on one hell of a show. They had so much energy! And their setlist just worked so well, from start to finish it was orchestrated perfectly and built to an awesome climax. They were a mix of 80s and techno. I felt the 2 band members were really the stars and not the actual songs. The guys brought their songs to life, while a lot of the songs sounded fairly similar to each other. Their live performance really elevated the material and just made it a fantastic set!
And then Cut//Copy were just phenomenal. Again, tons of energy and passion. They had a wider palette than The Presets. The Presets were non-stop, full-on energy, while Cut//Copy dipped into slower tunes and then built up to gigantic, sustained climaxes. They dedicated 'Strangers In The Wind' to Stevie Nicks. They played about 4 or 5 songs off their first album, which were all done so well and just had that audience jumping their feet off. 'Far Away' was the second song they played and it was fantastic; I danced my ass off. They ended with "Lights & Music" and then a song from the first album, and then they came back for the encore with "Hearts On Fire".
Both The Presets and Cut//Copy utilized these light bars which reminded me of much smaller and fewer versions of the "lightcicles" from the Radiohead shows, and not hanging above their head either.
'So Haunted' was probably my favorite song of the night. The lights were just fanfuckingtastic as they were lit from the front in eerie green while that guitar riff just blasted away, then later in the song toward the climax, it was flashing pure white with stage lights and the light bars and then they would cut out and it would be two beats of pitch black. There was so much passion and energy in their performance, all the songs really, but 'So Haunted' stands out in my mind.
My friend did not lie; he said Cut//Copy were the best performance at this year's Coachella, and I believe him. I hope these guys are around for a long time and come back to Southern California often!
I'll do my best.
