The Presets, Midnight Juggernauts, Haiku Hands

We discuss early 2000s electronica (The Presets), and crowd pleasing Midnight Juggernauts, and the new generation of dance pop (Haiku Hands).

The Presets played at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Melbourne, on 15 Nov 2024. Supported by Midnight Juggernauts and Haiku Hands. 

Chapters

• 0:04 Intro
• 1:10 Haiku Hands: The new generation
• 7:35 The Presets: A Nostalgic Electronic Duo
• 8:49 The Presets: Smells Like Teen Spirit
• 9:16 The Presets: Rage Against the Machine
• 10:39 The Presets: My People
• 12:25 Audience engagement
• 14:50 Midnight Juggernauts

Transcript

 (00:04.398)
Hi, welcome to How Was The Gig, where Andy and I talk about the latest gig we went to. And this time we went to see the presets. They are an Australian electronic duo. They were really big in the early 2000s, especially with their Hit My People. And they were joined by the Midnight Juggernauts. And their first support act was kind of my highlight, really. Haiku hands. Yeah.

And it was in the Botanical Gardens, which was a great venue. It wasn't too big. much better than my music bowl. If you want to see the act, not too far away. Do you want to go into Haikyuu Hands straight up? Because that's when we arrived. I might just give a bit of background. The crowd was a little bit old school. I guess there were a few.

40 year olds, middle-aged people. But yeah, the presets are a double act. One guy sings, one guy plays the drums. I saw them support Chemical Brothers and it was amazing. They didn't have the drum kit then, but it made me want to see their solo show this time around. So we got there during Haiku Hands though, the support act, which we never heard of and was blown away. What did you think when you first saw Haiku Hands? You know, there's four, I mean, I don't know how...

how old people are anymore, but they look like they're teenagers. They look like they're school kids. And they were great. They were just like really in your face. I said to you, they remind me of that one particular song by Charli XC, which is on the KFC ad, I Don't Care. I don't care. They reminded me of that. That's the vibe they had. And they were good. They were tight. So the style of music's basically they've got a backup track.

that they sing along to. And the backup vocals are on the track as well. you know. Just to give a visual, four chicks who come out there wearing these oversized, they look like school shirts, which maybe gave the vibe that that's why that guy turned around to us and said, shouldn't these kids be doing their homework? These oversized shirts, they came out wearing these kind of interesting.

 (02:14.606)
creepy cool face masks and yet this dance pop track that they sing to and they just go nuts on stage and this is This is what I've noticed and I could be making this shit up with these younger or this new generation of performers is There is an element of not being so perfect So we've moved on from the Taylor Swift perfect blonde all that all the right dance moves The dancers are all in sync

to this kind of different, and I feel like that is more Instagram generation where people, where we had the filters and it was all about looking beautiful, but now we have this TikTok generation, which is about dancing and going crazy and it's a kind of showing your flaws more and being more transparent and more real.

And I think, I think Chapel Rhone kind of displays that when she was doing her tiny desk performance on NPR, the fact that she had lipstick on her teeth as part of her costume kind of encapsulates that. And here was Haiku hands that was just, I don't know how to describe them on set. Of course they had this energy, but these perfect, imperfect dance moves.

this throwing, throwing streamers out into the stage. It felt really spontaneous when one of them, a couple of them just jumped into the crowd, not, not stage diving, just jumped off the stage and walked into the crowd and was just yelling in their faces with their mic and running up and down. And I, you know what, you don't get that with the presets. We didn't get that with, with Midnight Juggernauts. They were a great support act.

They really got the audience going. Their songs were pretty good. Yeah. It looks, after I saw them, I thought I need to know everything I can about this band. And it looked like they were one of these, I don't know if they're a band, they're a group about this group. It looked like they were one of those groups that got together before COVID and started, you know, they started to find their feet and then COVID hit, you know.

 (04:20.926)
I think Floodlights have that. I mean, there must be so many with that story. Floodlights had that story. Amel and the Sniffers have that. You know, they come out with an album and then they can't tour for another two, three years. And I think that's what these guys, they just started doing these live shows and started to build something and then COVID hit and now they're back with a bang. They were great. And you were so impressed you're seeing them again. I'm seeing them again for 22 bucks. Yeah. I'm seeing in the city.

It's 22 bucks and I said Andy, are you coming with me? You were like, I can't, too old. That's what he said. He said I'm a guy, I'll stick out like a sore thumb. Yeah, because it's such a small venue. I'm going to stick out like, it's going to be such a young crowd. You know, you know, it's going to be a super young crowd. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, are these old people? But I just think they're going to be awesome. Hike your hands at these festivals. I mean, they would have been great at the Ability Festival.

But you know, there are so many festivals you think, you could do with an act like this, just to break it up a bit. They are a big, I would have thought they would be a huge festival act. And I'm sure they've done international festivals, but I want to see them more in the lineups. Yeah, yeah, they really deserve it. But again, it's probably one of those bands, they just need that one breakout hit. Yeah. And it'll put them up in the next level.

I noticed their big single from their latest album is called Marula and that was very popular.

 (05:57.294)
When they sang that on the night. Yeah, I do harp on about the breakthrough hit, but all bands talk about it. Yeah. The Hoodoo Guru spoke about it and Jimmy Barnes spoke about it when he did the K-San song. He said all of a sudden the venues doubled in size. So he was doing this or something like that. And also, Teen Jesus spoke about it as well.

When at the concert we went to the Pier Hotel, they said, this is the song you're all here for. So they acknowledged the fact that, you know, this is what made us, know, the reason you're all here is because you heard about us because of this song. That was so... So, yeah. Haikyuu Hands are touring the album Pleasure Beast, their latest album, which I'm seeing in Melbourne for $22, which has the big hit Marula.

And well, I noticed at the gig, some people were like their big fans, because I don't think there's much crossover between Haiku hands and the presets, but some people were singing along, they knew all the words. So I don't know, maybe these people just like follow everything. I always wonder that too. I'm like, I thought I was up to date with my music. Why don't I know the words and how does that person know them all? And I like that they've the presets of

put these people there because so often they just have, you know, support bands of the same ilk, so to speak, you know, the same period. Like the Hoodie Gurus had the Hard On's and Jimmy Barnes had Tex Perkins, you know, they're the same era kind of thing, yeah? Yeah, definitely. The presets, I would assume they're probably about 10 years before Hike Your Hands even formed, you know what I mean?

Yeah, they were most they were formed in 2003. They're very Y2K kind of band, the presets. And they supported Daft Punk on Daft Punk's Australian tour. But I would say 2008 was their biggest year. That was nearly 20 years ago. The presets, I hate to do comparisons, but they did remind me of Empire of the Sun who also had their breakout in 2008.

 (08:15.758)
Interesting. And I love comparisons, by the way. So Walking in a Dream came out 2008. So it's, yeah, it's very much state of the year, I guess. What do think of the presets? So I saw the presets support Chemical Brothers and I guess, you know, what I usually say, maybe I'm not a big enough fan. I was so impressed when they supported the Chemical Brothers. I really rocked out to them.

And this is the thing, when they supported the Chemical Brothers, the highlight for me was when they did a sample or a set of Nirvana's Smell Like Teen Spirit. I know that sounds really cliche, but it was so good and the crowd went nuts.

And then they sampled Rage Against the Machines, Killing in the Name of. I was down the front and didn't have my friends were up the back and everyone around us was dancing like crazy when Killing in the Name of came on and these guys in my face yelling, fuck you, I won't do what you tell me. Fuck you, won't do what you tell me. And I'm yelling it back to him and it was just one of those random moments between strangers getting into the same music.

 (09:54.978)
 (09:58.958)
So it was this beautiful moment yelling at each other. And so I kind of wanted to relive that. But, know, I didn't see them live in the early 2000s. So I wasn't that sort of fan. And that's what that's what everyone was there for. That kind of dance almost rave culture. And yet they didn't do Killing in the Name of or Nirvana. They played their songs and

They're big hits. So you like them when they're more DJ-ish, yeah? No, just do examples. I, you might, yeah, well, I hate to say it, but like I loved my big hits. My People's probably their biggest hit on Spotify. And that was nuts. That was wild. I loved that. I absolutely, we're all like, yeah, this is my people right now. And, and his singing and being like, you're my people. And we're like, are your people? Yeah.

 (11:05.962)
I still love you, yes!

 (11:29.006)
Yeah. And of course, Martini, because the gal behind me kept on saying, do Martini. And I was like, they've already done it. I was like, yeah, but do it again. You know what's funny? I listened to their songs that week, like you did, so we can familiarise ourselves with the music and Martini would come on and I'd be like, what is this shitty song? They're not going to play this. And then they play it.

And that girl was going on and on about it. So what would I know? Right? It's a pretty basic song. Yeah. But I mean, you know, I mean, this is go back 2008 electronic music in Australia. Maybe this, you know, someone's reminded of that, that time in their life or whatever. And they love it. Yeah, I can see that. Especially if you're there to see Daft Punk and these guys are supporting it'd be a fantastic night.

Yeah, it would. He was pretty energetic though. He was stuck behind a keyboard though, which is always that barrier just from someone in the audience, as opposed to a lead singer who's just out there with a microphone really engaging with everyone. So I always think there's different levels of engagement and the top level is just you on a microphone singing to people. And then the next level would be a guitar. So you're kind of behind the guitar a little bit. And then, you know, and then you got, you know, one of the lowest levels is probably

Phil Collins in Genesis, when he was a drummer, he was a drummer, drumming away, singing. It's like, man, you got a whole drum kit in front of you. Yeah, spider baits the same. Yes. Disconnect from the audience. Like I had mentioned Tex Perkins wearing sunglasses. It looks cool. It looks great, but it is a little bit of a barrier between you and the audience. It would have served him well to come out from behind the keyboard and he was kind of boxing actually. Yeah.

and just do engage a bit more. He did once, I think, and everyone was like, wow. know, he can't believe. Yeah, it does. the crowd, doesn't it? It does when he walks right out there to the front. mean, you look at Cash Savage, she's got no instruments at all. She's just in your face the whole time. there's that. And, and Teen Jesus as well. She doesn't play an instrument, the lead. But, but what he was doing was quite energetic. You know, he's up there, he's, he's doing his best, but I would have liked to have seen, you know, just

 (13:52.974)
bring just hire someone else every now and then to come out and do that bit. And you were at the front, you're just doing my people, you know, all that kind of stuff. And the drummer was walking around a bit in between these little things, but there was a moment when, so when the presets, he was doing the keyboard and he had a drum, he was striking something and playing a sample. It reminded me of waiting for Goffman. Cause in that there's the trumpet player who has to play the trumpet and play the drums at the same time. It just looks so funny. It's like, really, just playing.

That's very funny. Yeah. So, you know, from a performance point of view, I think that would have made a difference, you know, anyway. So he's doing a bit of this, bit of that. Just my two cents. I'm always talking about someone who engages with the audience. I mean, the master of that, in my humble opinion, is Nick Cave. You're going to say Nick Cave. Just like he comes. I have to say it every episode.

But he is. think that's where Cash Savage learned it from. That's where everyone learns it from, let's be honest. I don't know when Nick Cave got it from. Let's introduce Midnight Juggernauts, who were the DJs between Haiku Hands and Presets. Yeah. So they rolled out and it was interesting because there was two of them for a start. Straight away I'm like, they got two DJs? And they to be sharing the nops here and there. Yeah. Like, you're doing that? Okay.

you do that. I'll do this one over here. I've got this one. This is my knob there.

And I liked... Two people who know nothing about DJing. Yeah. I don't know what they were doing. But first of all, I really liked how the big screen was shared with all the acts. So as opposed to a fat boy Slim who had this amazing big screen, but none of the support acts had anything on it. It's almost like it's like, want to keep that up our sleeve. So yeah, so we had this big screen behind and it really worked well. I mean, even for the...

 (15:52.258)
The DJs, they had a filter. They had like a Dungeons and Dragons filter on it or Wizards filter. So they would show their faces and they would become wizards or something like that. Yeah. So when they move Dungeons and Dragons image moves as well. Yeah. Yeah. And they, they were a real crowd pleaser because all the music they were sampling was very familiar. It was very 2000s, bit of Kylie Minogue, that sort of thing. So yeah, it was...

That was fun. A little bit cheesy, a little bit fun. One of the guys from Midnight Jungle Noughts did look like a wizard, which I was surprised they were playing Kylie Minogue. I didn't connect the two, but it didn't take long for me to go, yes, this works. Because we're at the front and so it was loud enough to us. Was that when that guy pushed through the crowd? Yeah, it was. Yeah. At the time they were playing Born Slippy from the Trainspotting soundtrack by Underworld, which is huge song.

And I can understand why that guy came through to make that statement. What did he do, Andy? Well, he suddenly pushed in and we were like, this guy's drunk. One of those drunk guys, I want to be in the front row. And he's like, sorry, excuse me, excuse me. And he went up and he just started yelling out, it's not loud enough. We can't hear it up the back. And that's when it occurred to me, you know, he might not be drunk. He might have a point here. Because it wasn't really like for us, it was OK. But there's no need for even an earplug or anything like that in the front row.

So, and then he is talking about, well, it's 80 decibels up the back. that's what I registered at the phone. And I'm like, well, yeah, that's not really loud enough at all. And then people got involved and the music went up. It got louder. Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Is it getting louder? Is it getting louder? Louder, louder! Turn up the volume!

 (17:48.878)
Who was the guy that came out and said you know turn it up turn it up he was wearing a beautiful suit I know he picked up the wizard looking guy from Midnight Juggle like picked him up and rocked him like a baby I think he was the drummer from the presets, but he was wearing a different outfit So that's what threw me, but I think it was okay So yeah, they put the music up then and people could hear it. It's up to back Yeah, it turns out he wasn't drunk. He was just some sound engineer knew his stuff

knew his stuff so. But the fact that everyone could hear him, including the midnight juggernauts could hear him say turn it up, it's not loud enough, must mean that it wasn't very loud. Yeah, well it was bizarre because I don't even know if they have noise restrictions. But I mention this for Jimmy Barnes, they had a guy parked across the road with a big microphone with some sort of

you know, something from the council or something to do the noise level. And then the other thing that we spoke about afterwards was the last song of the presets. It was just kind of like a little bit average and most people would think, they're going to do like my people or, you know, some of their big hits and didn't happen. didn't. was.

It was the same thing that happened with, well, Pearl Jam is a much bigger band and it made more sense. But it was almost like they were serving this song to the obscure hardcore fans who had been there since like 2003 when they first formed. And this last song was for them and it wasn't for us. The show in general, what I thought about the show in general, it was a bit, it was a bit low key for me.

Okay. bit low key. But you know what, maybe with kind of electronic music I need to be in the crowd more, not in the front row. But you were little bit more in the crowd. What did you think overall? Yeah, look, I liked it. I probably liked it better than Empire of the Sun. Same kind of music. Same kind of era. But I was up close, you know. But yeah, they weren't super engaging. But I don't know actually, Empire of Sun was pretty good. They had a lot of stuff to look at. A lot of visuals and stuff like that.

 (20:00.174)
Empire of the Sun. Yeah, yeah, was a big show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but you got to up. Well, I pay where I would if I had to recommend either Empire of Sun or presets to a friend, I would recommend Empire of the Sun. Yeah, I would say them again. But you know what? It does depend on venue, doesn't it? Because the venue for presets was so much better.

It does. A little more intimate. Comes down to the ticket price as well, you know. Like I wrote about the Ability Festival, 60 bucks. Yeah. Can you go wrong with that? Yeah, that was good. You know, so you don't judge anything on 60 bucks. buy everything like, wow. I would have paid 60 bucks to see one band, you know, to see the floodlights. Yeah, that would have been great. look, I think that wraps it up. Yeah. For the presets. That wraps it up. Thanks presets.

Midnight juggernauts and haiku hands. I'm seeing haiku hands again. Would you see any of them again, Andy? Yes, I would see the juggernauts and haiku hands. Yeah. I wouldn't mind seeing the juggernauts. I say if you, if you go, I'll go. Thanks very much for listening.

 (21:18.574)
It's crazy when you talk, talk, talk, talk,