Easily the most amusing story to come out of 2012’s Laneway Festival tour surrounded support band Teenage Mothers, and their public bitch about being kicked off the M83 tour. Their offending mistake, apparently, was indulging in a few nangs on stage. When kicking the clearly-petulant band off his tour, M83 frontman Anthony Gonzalez reportedly told the boys he didn’t want to be around a junkie because “this is a really important time for me”.

While the factual validity of Teenage Mothers’ account is dubious, the quote attributed to Gonzalez couldn’t be more true. Although the Frenchman already has five previous studio albums behind him, it was last year’s release of the soaring Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming and its lead single Midnight City that saw him win a whole new legion of fans and gain an (even) greater level of critical regard. That in mind, it makes perfect sense that he’d treat his 2012 tour as quite important indeed – and watching M83’s sideshow performance at Sydney’s Metro Theatre, it’s clear that the synthscaper has done just that.

With the absence of the nang-fiends leaving the Sydney show without a support act, Gonzalez and his backing band took the stage at the surprisingly punctual scheduled time of 9.30pm. Opening the night in atmospheric fashion, the alien creature from the cover of Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming slowly walked onto the stage, arms outstretched, before standing and facing the audience. It’s not, of course, Gonzalez (not the least because the alien has boobs) – rather, the distraction allowed the frontman and band to enter the stage somewhat covertly. Quickly, Gonzalez and band take to their instruments and fittingly, the opening song is the latest album’s Intro, with the very-able Morgan Kibby covering Zola Jesus’ vocals. Immediately, the shape of the night is set: while there would be offerings from Saturdays = Youth, this is very much Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming ’s show.

From there, we’re taken through tracks like Kim & Jessie, Reunion, Claudia Lewis, We Own the Sky and a particularly lovely rendition of Wait, as well as plenty of beefy instrumentals. “It’s great to be here” Gonzalez tells the audience, before tapping into the Zeitgeist of Sydney-siders with the remark “The weather’s been just great, it’s been raining everyday”. Sarcastic quips aisde, the whole of M83 go to lengths to prove their claim of being glad to be there. The whole set through, the energy of the band is high – all members (well, not the drummer – percussion doesn’t really lend itself to mobility) continually thrashing about the stage. At one stage, Anthony Gonzales climbs victoriously atop the crowd barrier for a sort of quasi-stage dive. Plus, Gonzalez and vocalist Kibby had some mad sexual chemistry going.

After a solid hour of tunes, it’s up to Midnight City to close the set. Predictably, it’s an epic rendition: with the crowd near matching the volume of Gonzalez’s vocals during the now-famous “the city is my church!” yelps, and becoming particularly excited when the saxophonist sheepishly emerges from backstage. Unfortunately however, the sax that should have been front-and-centre was drowned out somewhat by the rest of the band.

I’d expected Midnight City to be the peak of the set, but when M83 returned to the stage to encore with Skin of the Night, the performance reached a whole new level. Kibby’s vocals were nothing short of amazing (and it’s worth noting that Gonzalez’s, too, were strong throughout) and the song proved even more engrossing live. After an extended instrumental, the band departed; Gonzalez hopping down from the stage to high-five the front row of the audience as he exited.

To somewhat-tweak the immortal words of Otto from The Simpsons, you didn’t even need nangs to enjoy M83’s amazing Sydney sideshow. But to be honest, a couple probably would have enhanced it.