With Modular boss Stephen Pavlovic serving as curator for the 2011 instalment of the annual Vivid LIVE arts and music festival, Sydney-based dance fans have been on the receiving end of a hefty influx of quality dance acts bringing electronic textures to the fabled innards of The Sydney Opera House down on the water. And though the old dame’s main Concert Hall has played host to the likes of UNKLE and Air in recent years, it’s still quite exciting to see a dance act take to the sizeable stage.

Especially exciting for the Vivid programme was the inclusion of Melbourne synth dreamers Cut Copy in the big room. After great success with In Ghost Colours, new album Zonoscope confirms the group as genuine headliners with hit upon hit of dance favourites to pull from and the Opera House booking seemed like a deserved reward for all the band’s dutiful work over the years.

While the Sunday night show was noticeably not full – perhaps due to conflicting scheduling which saw the band sell out The Enmore Theatre just two weeks prior – the Cut Copy foursome stepped up to the plate admirably, decking out the Opera House stage with Amazonian jungle trimmings befitting the sprawling and sweaty nature of a Cut Copy set and the impressive, if under-utilised, tech’d-out door in the centre of the stage. The audience obliged the band their extra effort and not a moment into the set there were people rising from the plush seats to boogie, sway and flail their arms to the buzzing modernist rave that Cut Copy have so perfected.

Cycling through much of Zonoscope – including 15 minute album closer Sun God in its entirety – Cut Copy showed themselves to be a far more muscular and straight-forwardly electronic act than when I’d last caught them live. While guitarist Tim Hoey writhes and shreds his axe more elaborately than ever before, the tight electronic sequencers of Zonoscope easily over-powered competing sounds to build a really solid and pulsating backbone to the set.

Seamed together by the throbbing bass and looping arpeggios moments from the set would occasionally blend together, but still there were stand outs such as Nobody Lost, Nobody Found, Pharaohs & Pyramids and Hearts On Fire which got the live-sax treatment from a greased up guest in the rafters.

A less Zonoscope heavy set list would’ve also been appreciated with the band altogether ignoring their fantastic first album Bright Like Neon Love bar an electro-fied version of Saturdays.

If the future of Cut Copy sees the Modular foursome bound for bigger and bigger stages at every interval then judging by their commanding performance of the Opera House’s main hall they’ll be more than prepared to tackle the task.