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Crystal Castles, Andrew’s Lane Theatre

By on Wednesday, 23 April 200833 Comments | Print this post | Email
Crystal Castles, Andrew's Lane Theatre

The last time Crystal Castles were in Dublin, the chiptune dance duo left a sour taste in many a mouth after they played a 30 minute set in Kennedys. If this was to occur again last night, at €15 a pop, the audience would be paying 50 cent a minute. 50 cent a minute! Why that’s the price per minute of a UK off-peak call! It brings a whole new meaning to the term ‘phoning it in’.

Anyway, it’s a new day, it’s a newly-opened venue and Crystal Castles have a new 16-track debut album out. First to the venue. A large enough venue with a dark warehouse vibe with a capacity of near 700 in our estimation. The walls are decorated by graffiti artist Maser and the PA system was very capable. The venue is a real coup for Whelans and The Village and should become the venue of choice for alternative promoters (Andrew’s Lane Theatre = ALT).

State arrived just after 9pm and caught the end of support act Ugly Megan, a cutesy, fluffy and forgettable guitar-synth twosome. Following that we had to endure nearly an hour of Trev Radiator and his Trashed DJs. Trev was throwing an after-party with Crystal Castles following the gig so himself and three other DJs were getting the party started early. It was obvious from the moment we stepped inside the door, that the venue was largley occupied by kids from 16-20 years old. There were glowstick-laden nu-rave kids, walking haircuts, Nathan Barley clones, extremely fashion conscious, and normal ‘non-distinguishable by fashion’ folk dotted in-between.

At 10.20pm, Alice Glass, Ethan Kath and an un-named live drummer, took to the stage and launched into their remix of Klaxons’ ‘Atlantis to Interzone’. Alice was a ferocious frontwoman, leaping around the stage in a frenzied fashion, lit by a heavy strobe. A great frontwoman, but no vocalist (Not that she pretends to be). Most of her vocal performance consisted of alternating between shouting indecipherably and whispering in hushed tones. The music was consistently 4/4 and when they played songs from the new album, much of it was unrecognisable as they left the best melodies and hooks from those songs out of the performance. Favourites ‘Alice Practice’ and ‘Air War’ received a great reaction but sure enough, at 11.05pm – 45 minutes into the set, it was over – no surprise really. The best songs on the album were left out – ‘Untrust Us’, and ‘Good Time’, much to State’s disappointment.

There were a few rumblings of disgruntlement afterwards at the short set, but perhaps it was just enough. With plenty of staggering, inebriated youngsters buzzing outside, State gets the feeling the majority of the crowd cared little about the brevity of the set. It was a school-night after all..

Photos

By Dan Dennison.
Crystal Castles - Photo by Dan Dennison
Crystal Castles - Photo by Dan Dennison
Crystal Castles - Photo by Dan Dennison
Crystal Castles - Photo by Dan Dennison

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  • Deidre

    This article is bullshit. Niall obviously dislikes all music, or just feels resentment towards those who are making something new, as opposed to just writing about it. “50 cent a minute”? [Expletive removed]

  • http://www.state.ie Niall

    This article is bullshit. Niall obviously dislikes all music

    yes….. obviously…

  • Gav

    “Niall obviously dislikes all music, or just feels resentment towards those who are making something new, as opposed to just writing about it.”

    http://www.nialler9.com/blog

    Dope.

  • Colin

    Glad I missed this now. An hour of Trev on decks. I’d rather chew on nettles.

  • Jarvis

    Were we at the same show? I thought Crystal Castles were amazing. One of those shows you know you’ll be telling the grandkids about.

  • wheatln2

    If you were going to get a live representation of the album like I was then you’d of been disappointed. If however you’d been there for a Tuesday night rave then you’d of been more than satisfied. Ugly Megan were good but didn’t suit the crowd at all. And the venue was really rather awesome, big thumbs up to the Andrew’s Lane people, it really looked and sounded the part, so will be interesting to see what type of shows they put on.

  • http://wordpress.hotpress.com/offherrocker Nay

    There you go Niall. Time to give up the day job has come :p

    Lots of people told me about this show. Hardly any of them mentioned the music…

  • Jarvis

    I cannot wait to see Crystal Castles again.

    Gig of the year!

  • http://wordpress.hotpress.com/offherrocker Nay

    Whoah Jarvis, whoah! It’s not May yet…

  • Waxy

    Absolutely fantastic show – I think State sent the wrong reviewer to this one. Maybe someone younger?

  • http://www.state.ie Niall

    Where in the review did I say it was a bad show?

    I expressed disappointment at not hearing a few songs but where?

  • Barry

    a half an hour just seems tight for a full live set!

  • Gav

    “I think State sent the wrong reviewer to this one. Maybe someone younger?”

    That’s actually the stupidest thing I’ve heard this week.

    WTF does age have to do with anything?If music is genuinely good,age is not an issue.

  • Waxy

    WTF does age have to do with anything?If music is genuinely good,age is not an issue.

    If that’s the case, why did the reviewer spend a full paragraph talking about how young the audience were? Age has nothing to do with the music but the reviewer brought it into the equation.

  • http://www.state.ie Niall

    If that’s the case, why did the reviewer spend a full paragraph talking about how young the audience were? Age has nothing to do with the music but the reviewer brought it into the equation.

    Well it did have to do with the live experience in this case. That was one of the most pertinent things about the gig, so it would be silly not to talk about it.

  • http://pascalscountrysounds.blogspot.com/ cletus_buckley

    Yup, very disappointing, their album sounds ace, but their set just mashed into one long song. Maybe I was excepting too much from a band that sounds so good on record.

  • http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOU8GIRUd_g Brian Chris

    The gig was full of energy i thought, but after 20 Min’s id had enough of the screaming/whispering lark. Live drummer could have been louder, could hear him unless you listened in. When they supported Klaxons i thought the live drummer was the best part. Support act were lame, they were obviously picked from myspace for ther quirkiness.
    And i thought the crowd at Foals was like an episode from skins? How wrong was i.
    No merchandise either? Whats that all about?

  • David

    Agree with Niall in that they didn’t play a lot of the better tracks on the album, also that it kinda just sounded like one long song, albeit with Alice P as a standout… It was fun and forgettable, who’s next…

  • Hugh

    Best gig of the year, second only to Animal Collective in tripod.

    Now that was a value for money gig…

  • Shane Pullen

    It was a great, great show, Full of energy & choas! True, it wasn’t really mean’t for picking out your fav songs from the album but sure there ya go…
    Have too agree also I was surprised by average age of the crowd, younger than I expected..Neither a good or bad thing, everybody has the right to go see their fav bands. The lads on the decks went on for a bit too long as well, it was a lot of waiting around for CC.
    But the most dissappointing thing for me was… No merchandise! I was looking forward to proudly wearing a Crystals shirt . . .Time to gets a credit card me thinks.
    Anyways yeah, great show…second only to Gallows at voodoo lounge

  • Juiced

    i anticipated something big but nothing like this…as soon as the first blip hit, the fucking place exploded. I mean from row 1 to row 20, the whole place blew up.

    http://worshipstirregulars.com/2008/04/24/caned-camden-crawl-carnage/

  • Mike

    This article is bullshit. Niall obviously dislikes all music, or just feels resentment towards those who are making something new, as opposed to just writing about it

    Here here, what a bloody intelligent comment. Deirdre you’ve outstripped yourself in the “fucking-insane-shit-people-say-on-internet-comments” stakes.

    If however you’d been there for a Tuesday night rave

    Is it me or did raves use to be illegal and uncontrolled parties in undisclosed locations near a city with bangin tunes that went all till the next mornin? or am I too old, like the greying elder statesman Nialler?

  • http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOU8GIRUd_g Brian Chris

    Let it go people. We love Niall. Don’t listen to them. You are all things music.
    I also touched your head Sunday night at Foals. Your shorter than i thought, between you and Yannis Sunday i felt (literally) like a giant.

  • http://unarocks.blogspot.com UnaRocks

    “Niall obviously dislikes all music”

    hahahahahahaha. Muppet.

  • magooo

    their drummer is parrallels as far as i know http://myspace.com/parallelsurl

    the photos on trev radiators myspace are pretty funny

  • Sean

    Why would someone who “obviously dislikes all music” bother being a “music” reviewer, EH?!

    think about it Amadán.

  • http://ciaradryan.blogspot.com Ciarán

    “If that’s the case, why did the reviewer spend a full paragraph talking about how young the audience were? Age has nothing to do with the music but the reviewer brought it into the equation.”

    Age has a lot to do with it

    I saw CC in Limerick last year – had been impressed by some of the MP3s etc prior to that…However, to me they smacked of a band where style far outweighed substance(think the Limerick set may have been about 25 minutes by the way).
    Perhaps, I felt that because I’m now 26 and perhaps “old” to some, while many of those younger last year were way more into it.

    I have the same opinion on ‘Skins’ and I happened to turn that on recently, and guess what? Crystal Castles turned up on it…summed it all up for me.

  • http://beachesandreefs.blogspot.com sponger
  • colm

    id ride the scutter pump off that alice glass lass, and then cook her up a full irish. she looks like she needs a bit of grub in her

  • Sean

    scutter pump…classic

  • paula

    Brilliant gig. Just as good live as on the album. :)

  • Noel

    I’m 42 or 43 and love the album and was looking forward to seeing them but feel that maybe I should stay home and put on the headphones and look at the flames on the fire now instead :(

  • Whatever

    Crystal Castles are the best live band I’ve ever seen. I go to shows every weekend.

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