You get the feeling that if Kim Moyes – best known as one half of The Presets – would have bought a ticket to be in attendance for tonight's Faithless show if he wasn't booked as the opening DJ under his K.I.M. moniker.
As such, Moyes makes perfect sense to kick proceedings off (13 March); and although the older and slow-to-gather crowd is initially somewhat reticent to get down, he builds his set steadily to the point where nobody's too cool to move their feet a little.
The Chemical Brothers' 'Do It Again' goes down a treat, as does a clubby remix of Bell Biv DeVoe's '90s classic 'Poison', but credit must go to Moyes for taking the audience into the 21st century as well with a cheeky bit of Fcukers' heater 'I Like It Like That'. K.I.M. really can't go wrong – after all, he's here with all of his people.
There's a ghost in the wall of every show Faithless has played the last few years. The ghost's name is Maxi Jazz – and truthfully, when you're asked to picture the veteran UK dance group, his is the first face you think of.
He irrepressibly lead the band for the majority of its tenure, until ill health sidelined him in 2016 and ultimately took him in late 2022. Since then, surviving members Sister Bliss and Rollo Armstrong have continued the group in his honour – and tonight marks the first time they have come back to Australia since Maxi's passing.
Faithless - image © Jordan Bassett-Smith
It's fitting, then, that his voice is the first thing we hear when the lights go down – 'Forever Free', the opening track for the band's latest LP 2025's 'Champion Sound', features the last recording Jazz ever did. This gesture assures fans that Maxi's legacy will not be forgotten, but his absence creates a new problem.
With no frontman to speak of, Faithless is an unmoored ship. Sister Bliss is the de facto bandleader, but aside from a few addresses to the audience thanking them for their 30 years of support, she mostly keeps to the shadows.
The live line-up offers two guest vocalists, both of whom are impressive, but neither has the fortitude or the magnetism to confidently lead the band the same way Maxi did.
Faithless - image © Jordan Bassett-Smith
Nobody's expecting a one-of-one replacement, but at least other acts with dead frontmen like Sublime and The Pogues have managed to keep the memories alive in a more tangible, direct sense. A ghost in the machine, really, just isn't enough.
The inconsistencies present within the current live iteration of Faithless could potentially have had some more momentum behind it if the song selection was stronger. However, both the pacing and the frankly inexplicable choices notch a further mark against the show.
'Insomnia', the group's signature song, is fired off midway through the main set – almost as if they're simply trying to get it out of the way. There's no fanfare leading up to it whatsoever, to the point that people don't realise it's started until a projection of Maxi appears on the screens behind the band.
Faithless - image © Jordan Bassett-Smith
More notorious by its absence, however, is the band's 2004 hit 'Mass Destruction'. If ever there was a time to bring back this timeless anti-war classic, it's surely in this current political climate.
The group, instead, largely opt for covers of songs nobody has heard of – in turn, leading to the audience becoming easily distracted and disengaged. The sole exception is a drum n bass rework of Dido's 'Thank You', which – again, inexplicably – closes the show.
Faithless in 2026 feels less like an enthralling tribute to an important musical legacy and more like a husk. Yes, there's a distinct energy to the live band that adds a certain electricity to proceedings, and you certainly don't begrudge Sister Bliss for wanting to continue the group in dedication to her fallen leader.
To paraphrase another Faithless song they oddly do not play, however, you want more. Moreover, you deserve more.
