It’s never nice to see a support act undercut. Tonight’s door times were advertised as 8:15pm, but New Jersey’s Farrows took to the stage at 7:30pm, faced with a severely reduced crowd. A damn shame, really, as their slow-burn electronica and tight live drumming were exceptional – as was their inspired (and timely) use of Laura Palmer’s theme from Twin Peaks.
Local boys Crooked Colours fared better, playing pulsing indie dance tracks to a half-full venue. They were an oddly bright pick to support Crystal Castles, weaving an atmosphere of calm and elation soon to be cleft in twain by the headliners. That said, these three have a promising future on the festival circuit – they’d make a perfect addition to your Laneways and your Groovins.
For Crystal Castles, necessity is the mother of (re)invention – it’s been three years now since Alice Glass parted ways with Ethan Kath, and despite the years, she still haunts the space that vocalist Edith Frances now occupies. Sunday’s set had the air of a seance to it: focused heavily on tracks from Crystal Castles II, it endeavoured to conjure Glass’ spasmodic, frightening energy and cage it within Frances’ form. Where Amnesty (I) reared its head, it proved a better fit to their back catalogue than it had in recorded form – ‘Fleece’ was an expected addition, but an unexpected highlight.
Frances herself seems lifted straight from a French extreme horror film. All smeared lipstick, dog collars and vulnerability, she exudes an air of Stockholm syndrome – her act is finding empowerment within chains, a cornered animal wrapping the mic cord around herself like bondage tape. Much later in the set, in one incredibly endearing moment, the facade lifted when she skipped rope with the cable, and finally allowed herself to smile.
The crowd was unusually sedate, even as Kath sought to shatter the bonds between brain cells with his epileptic Game Boy beats. Frances’ underwhelming take on Robert Smith’s vox in ‘Not In Love’ certainly didn’t break the tension, but the general disaffection cracked when Kath slid ‘Untrust Us’ into a venue-collapsing mega mix, pulsing with chopped and screwed trap runs and the kind of bass that could feasibly defibrillate anyone within a kilometre radius.
The set was strong, and Frances proved herself a formidable frontwoman, but the night did not impact the way previous Aussie sets from Crystal Castles have. How they will exorcise their past remains to be seen, but for now, it’s enough that their music embodies a surrender and potency that clubbing in Sydney sorely lacks.
Crystal Castles played the Enmore Theatre on Sunday May 28. Photo by Ashley Mar
