Monday 30 August 2010

Gig Review: Crystal Castles.

photo: thissongissick.com

CRYSTAL CASTLES
6 AUGUST 2010
FOX THEATRE
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA

One never really knows what to expect from a Crystal Castles show. Sure, there are constants. They're from Toronto, Canada. They're a duo. They consist of producer and sound-producing extraordinaire Ethan Kath and a diminutive brunette banshee named Alice Glass. When performing live, they have a live drummer who kicks some major ass (in this case his name is Christopher Chartrand). It's loud, it's intense, there are no slow moments, and nothing is expected.

Thus it was at the HARD Festival. Taking its name from a Los Angeles trance fest, the stately Fox Theatre in Oakland, California happened to be the first stop on a cross-country tour; taking their act on the road, I reckon.

Also featured during this glow-stick bacchanal were the DJs Rusko, Sinden, and PROXY! - each of whom, my concert-buddy R. and I agreed, distinctly resembled the strangely popular and bizarre tween phenomenon Justin Beiber. In absolutely no way am I saying that any of these fine purveyors of decent and "HARD" techno-house were lacking in talent; it's just that they were just so ... so damn young. As were our fellow audience members! Maybe I shouldn't be saying this, but I'm ... uh, quite a bit older than Justin Beiber. So's R.

I digress.

The cavernous interior of this lovely 1920's Oakland movie palace is filled with intricate gold accents, a brilliant dome, all sorts of terra cotta and lattice-work, with a distinctive Turkish architectural look and feel. Sitting on both sides of the stage are these giant golden statues of some sort of heavy-set deity-looking figure. The eyes, made out of some sort of translucent material, glow from a light that burns within. Have I mentioned that the Fox Theatre is quite literally one of the prettiest venues in which to catch a show? I haven't? Now I have. If you get a chance to visit the Fox Theatre in Oakland, do so by all means. You won't regret it in the slightest!

OK, where was I? Oh yeah, Crystal Castles! Well, they were fantastic - if indeed Crystal Castles are your thing. I'd gone to see them at the O2 in London with my girlfriend - they opened for Franz Ferdinand and The Cure at the NME Music Awards - and the two of us had completely different opinions as to what we had just witnessed. "She ['singer' Alice Glass] just jumped around and screamed at us," is how she put it. I've got admit that that's pretty much what Glass offers on top of soundmaker-extraordinaire Ethan Kath's sinister and icily jagged soundscapes, but I think it goes just a little bit deeper than that. But when you've got Kath and the drummer pretty much keeping to themselves in their respective spots on the stage, Glass provides the holy-fuck-this-show-rocks rock 'n' roll spectacle that a lot of electronic bands somehow lack.

I'm telling you; at the Fox Theatre that Friday evening in the cool evening air of the East Bay, Alice Glass was bouncing off walls during their one hundred minute set. Shrieking like a banshee who's just suffered an ice-cream headache from eating ice-cold shards of broken crystal, she leapt about to and fro like a thrown-about rag doll. She climbed the speakers. She lay on the floor and writhed like something out of an exorcism film. She tried to climb one of the statues. She climbed to the very top of the drummer's bass drum and, quite precariously, began to smash the cymbal with a stick. Frankly, that was the moment I was afraid she was going to hurt herself, she was so all-over-the-place.

Most of the set was devoted to material from their new album (also entitled) Crystal Castles [II], and I found that it melded perfectly with the numbers from the original Crystal Castles. "Fainting Spells," with Glass screaming like she'd just stapled herself in the sternum, glanced flawlessly into "Baptism," which brings to mind some of the best trance I've heard in quite some time. Then we arrived at "Courtship Dating," and the crowd just went batshit. Everybody in the house was dancing their asses off, and I've gotta admit it, I was feeling just as young as some of the Bieberesque kids that surrounded R. and I. "Y'know," I said to R. as "Crimewave" washed over us towards the middle of the show, "this shit wouldn't be the same without her screaming at us." R. laughed and agreed, and we kept on dancing, the long spindly spider-legs of Kath's synth-doodling supporting giant greasy beats and accompanied by an elfish lass with a pretty brunette bob who screamed like her life depended on it.

'Twas quite a show. After a thumpingly-hardcore encore featuring "Untrust Us" and "Intimate," Glass stopped in mid-gesticulation, smiled sweetly at the audience, whispered "Thank you," and dropped her microphone on the floor as she breezily exited the stage, just like a proper rock star.

And that's what seeing Crystal Castles live is all about. I recommend them strongly if they ever come your way. Go see 'em.

setlist

bye!
fainting spells
baptism
courtship dating
insectica
doe deer
celestica
empathy
reckless
crimewave
air war
alice practice
black panther
------
untrust us
intimate
yes no

And here now, for your listening pleasure, is Crystal Castles' track, "Courtship Dating." Enjoy, my friendly audience!

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