Taina TeravainenThe snaking line outside Zouk, said club’s limited dance floor space and the promise of one of Canadian duo Crystal Castles’ famed chaotic live performances later that night on Jan 15 boded only one thing – unabashed sweaty mayhem.
It’s no secret that Crystal Castles is a favourite among hipster circles, their electronic dance music heavy on the videogame bleeps and synth, provided by producer Ethan Kath and punctuated by the frenzied screaming/singing of vocalist Alice Glass.
To say it was a show like no other would have been an understatement. Instead of cancelling the show, the petite singer arrived at 11.30pm, despite crutches and a broken ankle. Still, she managed to pull off an incredible show alongside with Kath and their touring drummer.
Known for climbing stages and leaping fearlessly into the audience (their 2008 Glastonbury Festival set was cut short because of this), Glass was fired up as always –clambering atop stage monitors, in all out flailing and wailing mode.
It was more than clear that the crowd was too large for the venue. The entire mass of people surged forward and stumbled back as one entity; I didn’t even have to make an effort to stand while everyone moshed to the beat of Crystal Castles.
The band tore through their 80-minute set, switching between the more boppy tracks from their first self-titled album, 2008’s Crystal Castles, like “Crimewave”, “Air War”, “Courtship Dating”, and “Untrust Us”, as well as the heavily distorted and more ominous sounding songs off their newer, also eponymously named second album, Crystal Castles (2010).
Alice’s vocals were manipulated a fair bit and she sometimes descended into unintelligible shrieks during “Baptism”, “Doe Deer” and “Fainting Spells”.
There was no break until the 1 hour mark, where Alice pitched herself into the drum kit and flung the cymbals away – to the cheers of the young crowd – before hobbling off briefly as the stage crew hurriedly set things up again. Then it was business as usual during the encore, which started off with their cover of Platinum Blonde’s “Not In Love”, which Robert Smith of The Cure lent his vocals to for the single version.
Crystal Castles gets major points for their guts and the full intensity of their live shows (Alice does all the work here), but will there come a point where the destruction gets all too repetitive? Right now however, they can remain in their rightful place, lauding from the stage over the noise and the exuberant mess that their music incites in their fans.
All photos are courtesy of Zouk.