It’s always interesting to see your favourite group live for the first time. You like their studio productions, but how do they stack up when on stage? Favourite groups often surprise in a live setting. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw Faithless and Ozomatli for the first time, both groups harnessing the raw energy and excitement provided by a live setting to deliver dynamic live shows. Favourite groups can also be surprisingly disappointing. After seeing Handsome Boy Modeling School stumble and mumble across the stage at Belvoir a couple of years ago, I am in no rush to catch another live performance. In contrast, seeing Air live at Kings Park proved to be anything but a surprising experience. Air live was exactly as I imagined: enchanting, enthralling and effortlessly restrained for the most part, but on occasion quirky, creepy and downright rocking.

Kings Park has proved to be an appropriate venue for a wide range of performers over the years, including Michael Franti and Spearhead, Badly Drawn Boy and Ozomatli, but I doubt there has been a group more suited to playing in Perth’s most picturesque surrounds than Air. On a still and warm night, Kings Park provided an ideal setting for the ambient and introspective Air sound. The two Air boys, Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel, led the other members of the live band onto stage right on 8.30pm and seemed to immediately identify with the laid-back vibe. Instrumental wanderings floated into a well-received version of Radian, closely followed by Venus and Napalm Love, and a thoroughly relaxed ambience was established.

It’s been 10 years since the release of the seminal Moon Safari but its continued influence and relevance seems undoubted. Talisman was the first track off that album for the night and it showcased the Air sound at its finest – atmospheric, bewitching and beautifully melodic. And understated. In a recent interview with ITM, Godin spoke of the Air approach to live performance: “We don’t make special projections or images because our music is so cinematic that everybody who listens to it is trying to let their imaginations go off.”

And so it was. Armed with a skeletal live band and minimalist but effective lighting, Air let the music and the lush surrounds speak for themselves. 2004’s Talkie Walkie received a solid workout early, with Run and Cherry Blossom Girl exemplifying impressive vocal interplay between Godin (playing bass) and Dunckel (controlling the synthesisers and mixers). Just as the Air studio production is of impeccable quality, so too is the Air live sound. A crisp, clean and balanced sound resonated around Kings Park, to the delight of both the large crowd and the sizeable throng of freeloaders camped outside the official concert area.

Just when I was thought the Air boys could do no wrong, out came the vocoder. I don’t mind the device being used for musical purposes (and it was used to good effect in what was a splendid rendition of Remember) but you don’t need to talk to the crowd through it. And not on multiple occasions. Not only are such gimmicks grating, unnecessary and thoroughly annoying, they also seem incongruous in relation to the refined and understated Air vibe.

But back to the music. After working the crowd into a blissfully dazed state, Air stepped up the tempo, delivering a rocking rendition of Don’t Be Light from 2001’s 10,000 Hz Legend. The upbeat tempo was maintained with current single Mer du Japon. The Air boys then showed they were true Frenchmen, dedicating Playground Love from The Virgin Suicides soundtrack to all the romantics out in the crowd. Ending the main set in emphatic fashion was the kaleidoscopic Kelly Watch The Stars. The mid tempo number provoked a group of punters down to the right of stage to get up and dance in what was, it must be said, a fairly ungainly fashion. Let’s just be grateful their taste in music is superior to their collective dancing abilities.

I had hoped Air’s live band would stretch to a female vocalist to lead tracks such as All I Need and You Make It Easy. Disappointingly, it was not to be. The encore however, was anything but disappointing, despite further use of the vocoder. A rocking version of Electronic Performers saw the Air boys declare “We are the synchronisers”, before they returned to Moon Safari for the evening’s final two tracks. Sexy Boy got the ungainly dancers back on their feet but it was the magnificent La Femme d’Argent which stole the show for this reviewer. Irresistibly seductive, languorous yet dynamic, I’d always considered it the perfect way to open a set. As Air demonstrated at Kings Park, it’s also an ideal way to end a set.

With the entire set clocking in at just over 75 minutes, it would have been nice to hear a few more tracks, especially given that ticket prices totaled close to three figures, but I’ll take quality over quantity any day. Let’s just hope that, for the next Australian tour, the Air boys swap the vocoder for a female vocalist.