My Crystal Castles (descriptive) essay for English class. I’m very opened to any feedback.

            Captivating, exhilarating, and mystical are all words that can describe the flashy,  electrifying concerts that are Crystal Castles. This electronic band with its own quirky, original sound that can be compared to almost nothing is a duo of one guy and one girl. Much of their music features thrash filled noise with dazzling electronic elements, creating an abrasive, yet melodic sound. Many of these glitchy, lo-fi sounds could partially resemble those of an old school video game’s sound chip, such as Atari. Any of their sounds from either of their two albums can range anywhere from mind exploding thrash to a slow paced, serene, pleasant song.

            The band that unknowingly released an initial hit song, are well known for their chaotic, riving and electrocuting live performances that are more like experiences than an everyday concert. Their performances are never without heart fluttering strobe light effects, and the lead singer Alice Glass and her constant stage antics of manically rolling around the stage and fiercely diving into the crowd. Always sporting a harsh attitude at their live concerts, her vocals can range from soft cooing on melodically eerie songs to screeching out lyrics on angry, frantic sounding tracks. Alice Glass always demonstrates a powerful, raging stage presence at any concert, even when she was confined to a cast and crutches. She never allowed her broken ankle to hold her back and still acted as a rabid, possessed banshee on stage. Ethan Kath, the other member and musical mastermind of the band, typically hides under a dark hoodie, overlapped with a big camouflage coat as he is pounding away at his multiple keyboards. It is as if he is casting auras of energized, mystical sounds and music while he hammers away at various keyboards. It is almost an adrenaline rush in itself to gaze at all the numerous equipment while waiting with the rest of the anxious, antsy crowd for them to take over the stage with chaos and a light show. From start to finish their concerts are absolutely mesmerizing and mind blowing, it is impossible to find boredom at a Crystal Castles show.

            Most of their songs contain elusive narratives stitched together by cryptic lyrics, it is difficult to decipher exactly what a Crystal Castles song is about. However, the band has opened up only a few times in interviews and about some of the content of their songs. Courtship Dating for example, is about human taxidermy, specifically the idea if preserving a loved one’s beauty like you would a wild animal. The track Black Panther is an upbeat, catchy sounding song that is grimly about a mother drowning her children because “she can’t believe something so awful came from her own body” as quoted by Alice in an interview. The band is often vague and fallacious in the few interviews they have agreed to, going as far as making up what they’re real names are or how they really met one another, and keeping their off-stage lives very secretive.

            The singer Alice is in full control of the dark, sometimes psychotic song lyrics, many of which are old poems she wrote as a teenager. Ethan is the mastermind of all the music, going as far as recording some tracks from the band’s second studio album in an abandoned church in Iceland, and a homemade cabin, just to make sure the mood was as appropriate as possible for the eery songs. The cover of their second album is a tenebrous, somber looking photo of a darkly clothed, mysterious looking boy in a cemetery. The explanation of the cover as said by Alice is “Just a serene calm that comes from thinking about lots of slumbering bodies in the ground for eternity. There’s nothing more serene than that.” I think this quote is very stimulating and really knows how to make a person think and wonder.

            This past March, my boyfriend and I took a scenic train ride heading through farms and densely wooded areas, and then over industrial, urban, run down looking neighborhoods to Philadelphia. As we finished half a bottle of cheap, slightly bitter, red wine from the night before, we were finally at our train stop, We boarded our train in a woodsy, rural area and got off in an urban city with the faint, almost industrial smell of car and truck fumes. We headed straight towards the venue where our favorite band would be playing that evening. It was a cool spring day, with a thin overcast layering the sky, beams of sunlight could still make their way through the white, falsely opaque sky. South Street of Philadelphia is a very artsy, eclectic street, sprinkled with tattoo shops and small art exhibits on either side of it. As we made our way down the colorful, busy street, we both spotted at about the same time, two members of Crystal Castles on the opposite side of the street. As far from them as we were, The main musician, Ethan and I made eye contact from across the road. His gaze hits you like laser beams, and I knew immediately that he knew that we recognized who they were. They were headed in the opposite direction as us, but we knew we had to meet them, even if we came off like crazy, obsessive fans. We crossed the road as swiftly as possible, as we did they quickly escaped into an athletic shoe store of all places. We were certain they knew we were tracking them down, like a wild, starving animal hunting down prey. When the walked out and started heading back down the road we caught up to them and to break the heavy tension my boyfriend asked the drummer “Are you Chris from Crystal Castles?” They stopped to make some small talk with us and we got to introduce ourselves and even shake their hands. Neither of us could believe such a thing was happening, that we were face to face with a couple of people we thought were the most incredible in the world. We both came off nervous, stumbling over every other word and what even to say. It was a moment where your mind is so blown you can barely gather any words or sentences together. After some small talk about some of their last concerts and the venue they were playing at that evening, we asked Ethan if he could sign our tickets. We did not want to seem like an annoyance or an inconvenience to them. After all this we were practically in a state of euphoria, we were so ecstatic that we walked right past the venue and did not even realize it. In line, we waited impatiently for security to open the doors, we bolted inside after our tickets were scanned and made it right in front of the stage. After a couple hours of zoning out to mediocre opening bands, they were finally over and now we just had to wait for Crystal Castles, who opened with their eerie, yet exhilarating song, Fainting Spells. Alice dived into the crowd during a few songs and I even got to touch her. I was grazing the soft, textured tights on the calf of her leg as she stood on the barrier directly in front of me, stomped her leg to the beat of the song, and sang out the lyrics to one of their hits, Alice Practice. Seeing her so up close and physically was an amazing experience, I felt like I was standing face to face with a mortal god. They finished off the show with an intense finale and encore. We could not believe this extraordinary experience was over as quickly as it began. We thought it was impossible for the night to get even better, but immediately as the concert ended, the drummer ran down from the stage, walked right up to us at the front, handed me the drumsticks from the show and thanked me for coming out. I could not believe he gave them to us personally, just because we had a quick conversation with them earlier that evening. It was one of the most amazing nights of my life.