Crystal Castles and HEALTH: The Show to End All Shows

Like an exponentially growing percentage of the Oberlin campus, you may be in love with Crystal Casltes (or at least Alice Glass). This could be for various reasons, including but not limited to: 1) Alice Glass is a hottie, 2) she looks like Karen O back when Karen O was a little hotter than she is now, 3) they make mind-blowing experimental thrash-electro music, or 5) Ethan (born Claudio) Kath used to be in a bad hardcore band in which his name was Ethan Deth. Ok, so it probably has nothing to do with the last reason, and that’s a good thing. Needless to say, after someone hears the CC remix of “Crimewave” by fellow touring band HEALTH, which reached #9 on the UK indie singles chart, there’s no going back. You are a lover, or I don’t know who you are.

By touring with the band that put you on the map, both HEALTH and CC had amazing foresight. We at Oberlin were witness to the first portion of a widely talked-about tour, which, I was not at all shocked to find out, lived up to all my wildest expectations.

Oberlin electronic duo Lionface (Ex-FX Unicorn) consisting of Alex Christie and Michael Rosen were on first, combining cute blips and beeps with house beats and pulsating bass. Despite less-than-impressive levels of audience dance-age until right before HEALTH performed, Lionface had a vigorous set. I know I am not alone in my sentiment when saying that I am now reassured that the name change has not at all affected the electro-pop appeal of FX Lionfaceicorn.

Los Angeles noise rock band HEALTH stormed the stage with what looked like a couple tons of equipment. This includes your “standard” rock n’ roll instruments along with synths, a super cool electronically distorted drum-head-thing (ask any TIMARA major for an intelligent and accurate description), and a Zoothorn, which is essentially a permutation of guitar and microphone, creating severe, distorted sonic mayhem.

John Famiglietti, multiple instrumentalist and occasional shrieker, kicked off the set with what looked like convulsions paired with the apocalyptic beating of the aforementioned super cool electronic drum thing. Listening to their self-titled 2007 Lovepump United release, it would seem illogical for HEALTH to pull off a good live show due to the seemingly unsystematic pairings of silence and raging waves of noise, but they proved me wrong. The almost-telepathic rhythmic communication between the band members was extraordinary, tightly winding their parts together with minimal metrical inaccuracy.

HEALTH has their moments of yelling and screeching, but their tendencies toward mellow chanting and smooth vocal soundscapes set them apart from other experimental, noise rock groups. On their recordings, the vocal parts are highlighted and provide a shimmering drone amongst the otherwise rhythmically centered clamor. A venue like the ‘Sco has a naturally hard time providing an acoustically viable landscape for this kind of sound, so the disappointing lack of vocal luster was the only tangible complaint I left with.

Some, however, thought that the show was too loud. One audience member came up to Farniglietti after their set in order to tell him: “Hey. Great show, but I was wondering if you could just play quieter next time.” “You mean, when you’re not there?” “Yeah.” Farniglietti gave a weak chuckle as if to express his unwillingness to take bullshit from not-yet-deaf fans while we walked into the Decafé to discuss his experiences at Oberlin as well as HEALTH’s history and evolution as a band.

The Oberlin Tritone: Hi John. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me today. So, what did you think of your set? How did it compare to your last visit to Oberlin?
JF: Well, last time was awesome; the school is retarded hip. We were supposed to open for Dan Deacon, but we ended up headlining because he couldn’t make it. We played with Crime Novels and Video Hippos, which made it a really high-energy show automatically. The vibe was awesome. This time was pretty different.

OT: Yeah- not as many people were moving around or dancing as I thought.
JF: I think that’s just the nature of this show. I mean it was a Dan Deacon show technically last time, so the kids came to dance.

OT: What was the original vision for HEALTH?
JF: It wasn’t to play crazy ass music. It was mostly traditional rock music and post punk at first. Honestly, we weren’t too happy with it; we thought it sucked but we didn’t know how to do what we wanted to do. We just kept getting weirder and weirder. For the first four months we were together, we played the straightforward stuff live, but then people responded more to the weirder stuff so we ditched the old stuff.

OT: Are there any bands that inspired this shift in particular?
JF: There were a lot of rock bands that indirectly influenced us, like early Animal Collective. A band that directly influences us is Ex-Models, the New York band.

OT: You have received a lot of acclaim based on the remixes bands like Crystal Castles have done with your work. Are there any dream collaborations you foresee in the future?
J: Well, we’d like to do more actual collaborations. A dream would be Italians Do It Better’s Johnny Jewel. We’ve talked a little bit, but it’s still thoroughly out there. As far as remixes, Crystal Castles is really the best there is. A datA remix would be awesome, but they wanted money, and we don’t really want to do that. I’d love to be remixed by Mirage next, but he's (Jewel) been swamped lately. Emperor Machine would be cool too. I don’t know if this would fit with our sound, but it would be cool to work with Ratatat on a remix. Again, Italians Do It Better acts like Chromatics would be amazing.

OT: So what bands have you personally been listening to lately?
JF: I never get tired of Crystal Castles, obviously. I listen to Glass Candy and Chromatics every single day. I like a lot of Video Hippos and I love Dan Deacon too.

OT: How did you guys and Crystal Castles become acquainted?
JF: We have been internet friends for years. “Crimewave” is actually two years old, but it was just recently released. The split was supposed to be done over a year ago. It is really exciting to be with them on their first ever headlining tour. They’re getting so fucking huge in the UK. I mean, it’s apples to oranges, but they’re fucking gigantic.

OT: Yeah, it’s crazy. I remember when I first heard “Crimewave” and it was so fresh and under the radar. Speaking of the tour, if you had to pick one band to tour with in an ideal world, who would it be?
JF: I’m not even lying; Crystal Castles is number one on the list of bands, for sure.

OT: Well we’re so lucky to have this tour come through. Thanks for the intense set, and I hope you come back soon.
JF: Yeah, for sure. Get ready for an amazing live show. Crystal Castles is always sick.

Sick indeed. Not many bands are as mysterious as Crystal Castles. Unwilling to be interviewed after a catastrophic misquoting experience in which a journalist painted a portrait of CC as a “mistake band,” Glass and Kath have flown way under the radar. Which, of course, makes them irresistible and, ironically enough, even more widely adored. Through the sweaty excitement resulting from HEALTH’s high-power set and the blaring hormonal need for Oberlin to dance to thrash-electro during midterms week, Ethan Kath could be discerned setting up various MicroKorgs and keyboards. He reportedly found the first keyboard used in CC in a Toronto dumpster, and outfitted it with Atari 5200 chips and TurboGrafx sound effects. My common sense would lead me to believe that with their recent raging success amongst neon and vintage-clad twenty-somethings worldwide, Kath has probably been able to afford something a little nicer than garbage for his mysterious, shadowy set-up. Throughout the show, Kath remained in the corner, hooded sweatshirt obscuring his face almost entirely.

All lights were dimmed as Alice Glass mystically appeared on stage, wearing ultra-hip, ripped red tights with matching eye makeup and a simple, black skirt and tee shirt combo. Strobe lights flashing, warped video game beats pounding, Glass trounced around stage, sometimes crawling and dragging the microphone on the stage, breathing into it with a combination of raw sexual verve and ghostly anguish. Oberlin students congested the front row, desperately dancing and reaching out to touch Glass. Holding the strobe light in one hand and the microphone in the other, she peaked the audience’s attention, energy streaming from every corner of the ‘Sco.

It would be all too easy to neglect the existence of the drummer, since he is not officially a member of CC, nor were his beats significant in the context of the show. The high-hat and bass were used, but not to excess in order to showcase Kath’s signature twisted, synthesized glitches. I would say that the drummer’s proudest moment was probably when Glass climbed atop the drum set, howling and spitting out lyrics for one of the songs that first made them a famous internet musical act, “Alice Practice.”

Despite a relatively short set (CC is famous for only playing for about 25 minutes and then mysteriously disappearing), everyone seemed incredibly satisfied. Hits like “Crimewave” and “Untrust Us” were played to perfection, sounding raw and exuberant while maintaining their recognizable structure and tone. The first few blips and high-pitched chromaticisms of “Crimewave” sent the ‘Sco into a frenzy, jumping up and down and mouthing the hardly-discernable lyrics of “Eyes lit, I pawn short breaths; a fawn's dark eye lids…dadadadadadie…” The highlights of the show were not the Myspace favorites, but were actually the brutally dissonant songs like “Love and Caring” and “Xxzxcuzx Me” in which the frenetic walls of sound ushered the audience to thrash their limbs every which-way as Glass flopped around on stage, possessed by the unrefined demon of electro-goddessdom.

It is no wonder why this eccentric act from Canada is so utterly “in.” Their full-length, self-titled debut was released on March 18th of this year, conveying a coarse brand of brilliance only expressed through musical risk and experimentation. This performance validated that Crystal Castles possesses the uncanny ability to spontaneously recreate and generate an even edgier and more danceable sound live.

Plus, anyone who was in the first row with me can attest to the fact that touching the shoulder of Alice Glass is in fact like touching Aphrodite on speed.

HEALTH - "Perfect Skin" mp3
Crystal Castles - "Courtship Dating" mp3
Crystal Castles - "Untrust Us" mp3

If you missed out on the show, this live compilation video of the song "Xxzxcuzx Me" is an accurate depiction of the Crystal Castles live experience.