Tuesday 1st July 2008 @ Thekla

Direct from Sydney and straight off the back of Glastonbury, dirty techno rockers, The Presets, landed in Bristol on a rainy Tuesday night. The duo have been performing for 4 years now but as this was their first gig in Bristol, they were relative unknowns and this was reflected by the thin turnout as the pair took to Thekla’s low, sweaty stage.

For me, The Presets are one of those curious bands where you find you have a handful of their tracks hidden deep in your iTunes library but have no idea who they are! Listening to them at home, they are some of my favourite meaty, filthy, techno tracks that always get me dancing but if I tried to remember how I acquired the songs I’d be completely clueless. As the band started their set then, I was curious as to what was about to unfold.

By listening to their music, you would be forgiven for expecting the performers that emerged onstage to be inhuman, cyborg sluts, armed with psychedelic instruments from the future and so I was slightly taken aback when the lanky souls who were presented in front of me were just two middle-aged men who looked like they worked in a call centre. But for what The Presets lack in dramatic visuals, they sure make up in dramatic sounds: first song underway and we’re bathed in the sort of beaty, industrial, psychedelic techno that would soundtrack a robot giving birth and topped by microphone effects that sound like the singer is trying to contact a parallel dimension.

As the crowd start to acclimatise themselves to the dirty techno, a few more bodies filter themselves down into the hull until the crowd has filled Thekla and are all eagerly dancing away. What started as a pleasant electro boogie though, with the unleashing of The Presets’ standout track Are You The One? teeters everyone over into full rave mode; heads are bouncing, feet are twisting and arms are swinging.

The excited crowd tonight are a very mixed bag of ages and styles but all brought together behind their sweaty, topless Braveheart – Big Jeff – in the creation of a good old Tuesday night rave and our conductors Julian (vocals/keyboard) and Kim (drums) are obviously enjoying their set as much as every arm waving nutcase below them. The live drumming gives the techno riffs a great new dimension but it’s a little disappointing that the gig isn’t being played completely live. There are only two of them creating this cacophony of sounds, effects and beats so some of the meaty riffs have been pre-recorded and are blasted at us while the men sway on stage waiting for their queues.

After an hour and a half of this non-stop rave-athon, the room is full and buzzing but I am exhausted; however I just about mange to muster up enough energy to really shake me thang during their last song: the aptly named I Go Hard, You Go Home.

Matt Whittle