Crystal Castles Brought Their Strobe Light To NYC This Week

On the walk home from Pianos (to see Port O'Brien and Delta Spirit, should have some pics later), we passed a very sold out Mercury Lounge, where LA ass-kickers HEALTH and 8-bit dance outfit Crystal Castles spent the evening raising hell, danceably. We didn't get in, but we did overhear a simply perfect capsule review from a deeply accented British bloke spilling out of the club's doors and onto E. Houston: "That strobe light murdered me." Sadly we didn't get to see Crystal Castles in Austin, nor in NYC this week (night before last at Studio B, yesterday of course at Merc) -- but we knew just what the guy was talking about from the video Abbey Braden delivered to us from her time taking elbows front row Tuesday night. This isn't recommended for the seizure prone, nor for those who are easily made envious of dance shows they didn't attend:

"Courtship Dating"

These shows in the city were amongst the last on the Crystal Castles/HEALTH tour, so we have some more A/V documentation of the affair, along with the everybody-already-has-it-but-in-case-not-this-is-a-must Crystal Castles remix of HEALTH's "Crimewave."

Before we get to MP3, here's Alice Glass screaming it up on her "Practice":

"Alice Practice"

And this is where these bands' love for each other was consummated:

Crystal Castles - "Crimewave (Crystal Castles vs HEALTH)" (MP3)

Alice on kick drum:

And you've already seen video from HEALTH's stage-melting live set, but we just can't help ourselves. Plus, Abbey's front-row vantage may go the extra mile in terms of convincing you to go see them.

HEALTH - "Heaven"

Only two more chances to see these two together (here's looking at you, Canada):
03/27 - Montreal, Quebec @ Musee Juste Pour Rire
03/28 - Toronto, Ontario @ Circa

But more than a few more shots with HEALTH:
03/29 - Rochester, NY @ Bug Jar
03/30 - Purchase, NY @ SUNY Purchase
04/02 - Providence, RI @ AS220
04/03 - Philadelphia, PA @ Danger Danger Gallery $
04/04 - Washington, DC @ Velvet Lounge
04/05 - Baltimore, MD @ Talking Head Club
04/06 - Richmond, VA @ The Camel
04/07 - Raleigh, NC @ Downtown Events Center
04/08 - Columbia, SC @ 112 Huger St.
04/09 - Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn
04/10 - Birmingham, AL @ Bottletree
04/12 - Houston, TX @ The Mink
04/13 - Austin, TX @ Emos
04/15 - Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves
04/16 - Lubbock, TX @ Bash Riprocks
04/18 - Phoenix, AZ @ Trunk Space
04/20 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Smell

Do it.

Posted at 10:30 AM in Concert, MP3, Video
Tags: Crystal Castles | HEALTH

6 Comments

saw them a few weeks back; it was pretty amazing...

Posted by: huyenism at 03/27/08 12:12 PM | Reply
Score = -1

Easily the best live band I've seen in years. Crystal Castles rule hard live.

Posted by: Curt at 03/28/08 4:39 AM | Reply
Score = 0

So good i wen tot two of their shows at sxsw - photos here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/newave/tags/crystalcastles/

Posted by: newave at 03/30/08 4:51 PM | Reply
Score = 0

alice glass is awesome

Posted by: disasterhead at 04/01/08 12:24 PM | Reply
Score = 0

I'm glad I'm in the minority in this but god did they suck when they opened up for Metric. I couldn't stand them. Strobe lights or not.

Posted by: Ghost at 04/04/08 3:29 PM | Reply
Score = 1

Umm Crystal Castles = best act around right now....way better than Metric, buddy. Go do lines with Emily Haines

Posted by: Ric at 04/05/08 9:39 AM | Reply
Score = -1