Cut Copy @ Palace Theatre, Melbourne (05/05/2011)

“All we’d wanted was for two hundred people to come see us at the Tote,” Dan Whitford of Cut Copy told an enraptured crowd at the Palace Theatre last night, with an air of sheepish satisfaction. It’s been three years since Melbournian electro-pop act released the massive In Ghost Colours, propelling them into the international dance scene with their shimmering anthems for 2008, Hearts on Fire and Lights and Music. And three years since they last played a headline show in their hometown.

They’ve done rather well for themselves in the time between. Headlining Miami’s Ultra Music Festival and Coachella, touring with acts like The Presets and Bloc Party, an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon – not to mention the release of their outstanding indie-disco effort for 2011, Zonoscope.

Certainly well enough to completely pack out the Palace Theatre on a Thursday evening. Supported by the excellent indie-pop darlings The Holidays, Cut Copy took over the stage to a manic crowd – and from the first whispers of synthesisers coming from the stage, the crowd was riotous and totally up for it. Nobody Lost, Nobody Found was a surprising but welcome opener – breezy vocals from Whitford and glittering, cosmic synths had the insanely crowded stagefront jumping around from the get-go.

Much of their set was comprised of new material from Zonoscope, which sounded deliciously dizzying and warm in the intimate confines of the Palace Theatre. Take Me Over, Need You Now and fifteen-minute epic album closer Sun God washed over an adoring crowd.

Production quality was for the most part, excellent: lights and visual projections translated the colourful feel of Cut Copy’s music perfectly, while a screen behind projecting abstract visuals suited the feel of the lively gig perfectly. There were occasional moments where Whitford’s vocals were thin and indistinguishable in the mix of guitars, synthesisers and drums – not that it mattered, as the crowd were more than happy to cover for him.

From recent single Pharaohs and Pyramids – with its stomping, rapid-fire beats and dramatic vocals from Whitford – straight into a fiercely disco-ey new mix of Saturdays, Cut Copy made dreamy transitions from one song to the next. Delicate moments of ambience melded into pounding drums and keyboard notes, recalling the cohesive, organic feel of In Ghost Colours and lending their set a relentless energy that swept the crowd away.

Highlights from there such as So Haunted, Lights and Music and Hearts on Fire that had the audience going mental – dancing and jumping around madly as Whitford soaked up the energy, urging us to sing along, flinging his guitar around and, at one point, into the audience.

Unfortunately, as a forty-seven kilo, five-foot girl, the intense energy of the crowd got to the point where I was having difficulty staying on my feet, and found myself having to escape to the sides to watch the crowd and stage – without being crushed – from above. It was particularly apparent from there how much the people were frothing over their show. A round selection of material from all of their albums filled out their final half hour on-stage perfectly, and closing with Need You Now and Feel the Love left the Palace Theatre dazed and delighted.

It’s been an exhilarating year for Cut Copy already and last night was an outstanding welcome home for one of Melbourne’s most exciting dance acts – and particularly adept at making the hipster kids usually too cool to look anything but bored and preoccupied at gigs lose their shit and dance for their lives, making the Palace Theatre the hottest place to be that night.