so i saw crystal castles yesterday

... and alice glass really ruined the show. the stuff she does in the studio, she couldn't pull off live, so all that came through her were these annoying high-pitched shrieks. i kind of blame the sound guy since it wouldn't have hurt the show very much if she wasn't as high up in the mix, but now she was, and it was really distracting. i've read about her being a powerful live presence and whatnot, but.. uh... yeah, i guess some people mostly just look at her when she poses and dances (off-beat, at this show at least) rather than listening to that godawful voice?

the show turned good when they started running her through a vocoder, though. although it was pretty funny when i heard the celestica intro and thought "so, is she actually going to sing on this one?" nope, she used an auto-tune. which i don't mind at all, i mean, she used an auto-tune on the tracks whose studio versions have an auto-tune, and that sounded good, but on celestica it didn't sound as good at all. it might just be that i'm just to the song being sung ordinarily, or something.

i dunno. it was kind of annoying seeing a bunch of hipsters dance their asses off while i just got distracted by that fucking shriek (and it wasn't a cool shriek like in the studio versions, it didn't even sound similar) every time i tried feeling the beat. plus the mix was kind of bad, way too much treble (although that was a theme running through all the shows at this particular festival, so i guess the sound technicians were to blame for that).

i also missed trentemöller so i'm kind of pissed off about that, i heard he was good.

it must have been so terribly annoying for you to go see a hipster band and not dance and get mad at all the hipsters for dancing to fashion nintendo beats.

your pain is mine

it hurt my soul

EDIT:

this is more intended to be a discussion on how the fuck a person gets to be so lauded (like alice glass is) without ever actually doing anything. i mean i even like the crystal castles records, even though they pretty much use the same beat through every song

.

just have an ironic coors light and everything will be ok

i don't even think crystal castles is considered to be that much of a hipster band in sweden. too mainstream man

maybe if they wore tighter jeans or something?

Both times I've seen them they were great and sounded pretty great from what I remember.

i'm just being a dick because this thread is nothing but you whining about how someone didn't live up to your expectations, and the sound technicians sucked, and the other people there were dancing, and it was all so annoying, etc.

i'll stop being a dick and exit your thread now though, cheers

do you remember hearing her voice? i read somewhere else that someone barely heard her when s/he saw them. i think that might be their trick. now she was turned up really loud.

EDIT: it's alright, luke viia. i am used to the ways of the internet. you have not hurt me (that deeply).

although, yeah, i think whining is a pretty good part of discussion. i am discussing crystal castles as a live act, and i disliked them the one time i saw them. some other people might have liked them, and may have something to add to the discussion. etc.

I wouldn't say the vocals were particularly quiet or loud.

I saw them live at Reading Festival one year, 2009 I believe. I'm not a Crystal Castles fan, I think they're massively overrated/over-hyped, but the atmosphere in the crowd was absolutely amazing. I listened back to the set on the BBC page and it sounded like utter gash.

  On 6/5/2011 at 5:25 PM, AcrossCanyons said:

I wouldn't say the vocals were particularly quiet or loud.

i think a lot of the blame falls on the sound guy for this one. she was really loud in the mix this time.

  On 6/5/2011 at 5:30 PM, futureimage said:

I saw them live at Reading Festival one year, 2009 I believe. I'm not a Crystal Castles fan, I think they're massively overrated/over-hyped, but the atmosphere in the crowd was absolutely amazing. I listened back to the set on the BBC page and it sounded like utter gash.

hm yeah, i think the fact that the people i was there with hadn't really listened to them affected my reaction as well, becoming part of the crowd movement is pretty important. god knows i've seen some shows where the singer sucked without having that stop me from enjoying myself.

did she look strung out?

i dunno, couldn't tell from that distance. she might've been, she might not have. she looked really into the show at least.

from what i've read in the past she is pretty out there on the drug tip, unless its all for show but i doubt as many shows have been cut off mid set and crazy stuff like that. the fact that her performances are often inconsistent also sadly support the possibility that she on the wrong side lucidity.

that might've been it. she barely even pronounced the words, she mostly just replaced them with those weird high-pitched shrieks. considering the scene and all it wouldn't surprise me, especially considering, well... i'd imagine there would be a ton of people (guys mostly) willing to score some cheap deals to impress her at any venue they're playing, at least in stockholm. "hey, i can get you some stuff if you want to, i know a guy", etc, etc, etc, you know?

ding ding ding we have a bingo! a sad bingo.

This music is a bit shit.

I've seen Crystal Castles three times; once in a tiny club, once at a large festival and once at a massive festival. The fact is they just don't sound very good live.

You're quite correct in your assumption that Alice just isn't very good. I love what she does on the records but I think that may have a lot more to do with processing than her actually being good at singing or whatever. The best shit she has going is the intensely edited sampled stuff on things like 'Untrust Us'.

They did do one thing live that really impressed me, this was at Parklife festival in 2009 I believe. They finished with an instrumental that was actually really dark and sinister and was reminiscent of Underworld in a way. I've never heard it before or since and when that second album of theirs came out it wasn't on there. I was pissed. Anywayz....

edit: if anyone can tell me what that track is called, I will be very pleased :D

She definitely isn't a good singer but she is a very good frontman and very entertaining live.

certainly sounds like an amazing waste of money to me

saw them at rockness last year. easily the worst band i've ever seen live. they were so shit, it actually made me angry.

  On 6/5/2011 at 6:01 PM, jenny said:

she barely even pronounced the words, she mostly just replaced them with those weird high-pitched shrieks.

Kids and their vomit music, where's the melody?

hipsters don't dance. they groom.

for a band that ripoffs obscure chiptunes artists and lies about do you really except anything even resembling musicianship onstage?

WATMM really is full of old boring men. Their show is entertaining and that's all that should matter.

(altho I could have just seen them rare good days)

You wouldn't go to a hardcore show and expect them to sound like they do on record.