Live: Crystal Castles @ Premiere Events Center

ARTICLE BY SOPHIA PORTIER
PHOTOS BY THE SQUID

APRIL 12 | LOS ANGELES—“F--K THE FIRE MARSHALL!” This chant pervaded the minds of Crystal Castles fans this past Saturday in downtown L.A.’s warehouse district. The duo had an extremely late start due to fire regulations and crowd safety. But once Alice and Ethan went on, they really, really turned it on, replete with palpitating beats and hypnotic distortions. Neon blue lights flashed the color of a mixed drink amidst dance-spectacular bodies. The night’s frustration and long wait were incredibly well worth it.

Crystal Castles knows how to stimulate a crowd. Their music is like an ecstasy tablet of sound, effectively rolling each and every scenester dude and dudette in sight. Alice is one ferocious front woman, and her energy level is out-of-this-world ecstatic. Favorite “Crimewave” sounded ever more spectacular with the addition of live drumming, as did “Alice Practice” and “Courtship Dating.”

Other tracks like “Air War” had this future, dystopian landscape vibe that the crowd just couldn’t get enough of. The rest of the set was spot-on glorious, amped up by Alice’s sexy siren calls and backed by Ethan’s sometimes video-gamelike beat mastery. The entire show resembled an underground indie club scene—warehouse style.

Crystal Castles? More like Crystal Kingdoms. Fire safety drama aside, they f--king reign supreme over indie electronica.