Live Review: Crystal Castles & Gold Fields

The dynamic within acts that operate as a duo is often noticeably more fluid. The members are more in sync and keyed in as to the direction of the performance as they are only relying on one other member to make the overall product work. Crystal Castles are one such act, managing to harmonise their visions in a live setting and, in turn, execute this.

Victorian Indie-Dance quintet Gold Fields was charged with the responsibility of warming up the giddy, capacity crowd. Ensuring the onlookers were aptly tended to, Gold Fields' brand of innocuous, high-energy dance music sustained its vigour throughout the set – a product of relentless international touring over the last 12 months.

Crystal Castles, comprising of Alice Glass and Ethan Kath, emphatically entered the hazy stage, shortly thereafter thrashing their way through a punchy rendition of Plague. Blazoned with strobes and vivid colours, their set was one of fervour and raucousness, often forgoing vocal execution in favour of erratic movement. Glass often integrated various instruments into her maniacal dance routine, layering her distorted screechy vocals to complement her confronting live presence. Kath delivered the intense, synthesised melodies, including older track, Crimewave, which drove the crowd to eccentric, dance sequences where arms were violently flailed about and necks were jolted in unison. Though the dynamic duo possessed passion and ceaseless energy, the performance possessed some minor shortcomings. Crystal Castles' unorthodox brand of alternative electronica does not consistently work in a live setting. Occasionally, the brash instrumentals would be so overpowering that the vocal stylings of Glass would be compromised. The layering of synthetic sound effects and the penetrating melodies was often so distorted it resembled white noise and thus did not resonate with the audience. Diving into crowd-pleaser, Alice Practice, a blonde Glass windmilled her arms while wrapping her mouth around the microphone and screeching her lungs out, scraping each crowd member's cochlear.