Concert Review: Crystal Castles @ TLA, 3/15

Sex, drugs, and rock and roll: that classic cliché is the best and perhaps only way to describe what happened at the Theatre of Living Arts on Tuesday night when Canadian electro-punk and indie buzz-band superstars Crystal Castles played host to a sold out crowd.

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Concert Review: Crystal Castles @ TLA, 3/15

POSTED: Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 4:00 PM

Filed Under: Music Concert Review

Devil Alice (Massimo Pulcini)

Sex, drugs, and rock and roll: that classic cliché is the best and perhaps only way to describe what happened at the Theatre of Living Arts on Tuesday night when Canadian electro-punk and indie buzz-band superstars Crystal Castles played host to a sold out crowd. Alice Glass, Crystal Castle’s ferocious front-women, had broken her ankle earlier in the tour. Despite pressure to cancel all remaining shows due to the injury, Alice responded to doubters the only way she could: with a simple “fuck you.” In show business they always say “the show must go on,” and Crystal Castles did put one hell of a show, broken ankle and all.

Glass and producer Ethan Kath initially appeared on the gloomy stage as silhouettes in the dark, shadows moving only as figures of the audience’s imagination. Suddenly, as the phasing pulse began thumping, the group unleashed its one-of-a-kind brand of electronic terror onto the crowd. In a daze of fog, strobe lights, and color, Alice and Ethan gave the crowd what they came looking for: a nightmarishly violent 8-Bit storm of electronic beeps, tones, samples and screams. Despite her injury, Alice was still her maniacal self, yelling her shrill echoes into the night. She repeatedly thrust her tiny frame into the audience, hands raised high into the air, and fell into the flowing mass that was the crowd.

Crystal Castles played all the songs you would expect to hear from both of their self-titled albums. The crowd romped to the robotics of “Crimewave,” the chaos of “Alice Practice,” and the nocturnal sleez-fest that is “Untrust Us.” The only track I saw as noticeably absent was “Vanished,” the one tune I find that everyone refers to as “That-One-Song-by-Crystal Castles.” Despite that omission, all the tracks set the perfect ambiance for the group’s dirty and un-refined lo-fi electronic sound. As Crystal Castles played their grimy, guttery mix of electronic dance music and Game Boy glitches, the crowd fell into the sex- and drug-filled fantasy that Crystal Castles’ music creates. In a perfectly fluid way, the entire audience gyrated, swayed, and most of all, perspired together as they gazed blankly into the eyes of Alice. Alice seemed to be possessed by all sorts of demons and her glare was legitimately frightening—every time her black eyes crossed yours, you felt like you were looking straight into Hell.

Overall, Crystal Castles' set was everything I expected- short, violent, sexy, and very sweaty. Despite the occasional horrors of the night, it was so hard to look away or not find lustful pleasure in Alice’s twisted gaze and the music that it spawns from. The band’s intensity and fury is very hard to not appreciate and it was truly as captivating a concert-going experience as it was uncomfortable. Something still doesn’t sit well in my mind after looking in the void of Alice’s stare, and it’s something that can only be found when listening to Crystal Castles. It is a dark, gritty, and lonely place—but a place that keeps you coming back for more.

Posted by Massimo Pulcini @ 4:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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