October 9 saw the Seattle debut of Toronto electro-punk duo Crystal Castles, and I was totally stoked. I wrote about the band at the beginning of the year, incorrectly predicting that they'd break up before they ever toured to Seattle. Their originals and remixes are favorites both at home and in the club—"Love & Caring" is an amazing single, and their remix of the Little Ones' "Lovers Who Uncover" is gold. I'm glad they made it to Seattle, but I'm not sure how I feel about their show.
The band were rounded out by a live drummer, which was a definite plus, although preprogrammed beats occasionally drowned out all but the live high hats. Producer/instrumentalist Ethan Fawn spent the show hunched over a Casio and a microKORG, pumping out the band's signature NES-core bleeps and beats. The show's biggest surprise perhaps was lead singer Alice Glass. Reports from the band's early shows painted her as introverted and immobile as Fawn, but she was a teenage riot onstage, bounding around, towering on top of the drums, falling into the crowd, playing with the incessant strobe lights, screaming and wailing. It was kind of like the Dalmatians, if everyone in the Dalmatians had stayed goth after high school, or like Atari Teenage Riot trying to do pop songs, or the Presets with Fairuza Balk for a singer. In other words, it was awesome.
But I can't believe they didn't play "Love & Caring"—that song is the motherfucking jam! "Crimewave" was the set's highlight, transformed from head-nodding electro-lite pop to pogoing anthem on the Showbox at the Market's sound system. They also played "Alice Practice" and an instrumental version of their remix of Klaxons' "Atlantis to Interzone" over which Glass seemed to improvise vocals. During two different songs, Glass shouted some of the set's only intelligible vocals, the LiveJournal-ready double-negative koan "How does it feel when you don't feel nothing?" This, along with the band's early track "Excuse Me" (which they didn't play live)—about an "AIDS robot"—makes me think the band have room for improvement in the lyrical department.
The consensus in my part of the crowd was that it was a fine debut from the band, but that the show would've been a lot more fun in a basement or at Club Pop. But when is that not true?
Despite some people's concern about their stage setup—Marshall stacks and nonfunctioning modular synths as props, an apparently serious light-up cross—Justice's show at Neumo's on October 12 was pretty triumphant. Neumo's was as packed as I've ever seen for the sold-out show and as hot and humid as ever. It was very much a rock show, with the crowd too crammed to really dance, everyone facing forward to watch the duo bob their heads and smoke behind laptops obscured by their stage setup, and Justice themselves breaking between songs about as often as mixing them together.
Their set was great, but it could have been louder (I wanted Justice's riffs peeling my face off). Highlights include an early tease of "Phantom," their remix of Scenario Rock's "Skitzo Dancer" mixed with "Let There Be Light," the transition from Klaxons' "Atlantis to Interzone" to breakout hit "Never Be Alone," their remix of "NY Excuse," and finally their closing selection of Metallica's "Master of Puppets." In the end, I had a better time catching the duo's DJ set with the Ed Banger tour in Vancouver, BC, in March—there was more room to dance, their own material was worked in as part of a continuous mix, and it's just a lot easier to get high in Canada.
I was shocked how the place emptied out after Justice's set, even though it was barely past midnight and Mehdi (probably Ed Banger's best DJ) and Justice's Xavier de Rosnay were about to DJ. The kids were there for the "rock show," I guess. Anyway, Mehdi and Rosnay killed it—Mehdi mixed "Be My Baby" into DJ Funk's filthy remix of "Let There Be Light" in one of his more genius moments behind the decks—and there was finally some room to get down.
