Plague: Crystal Castles @ Hollywood Palladium, 4/26/13

“Virgin cells to penetrate
Too premature to permeate
They can’t elucidate
Never thought I was the enemy

I am the plague”

~”Plague”, Crystal Castles

This year I have really gotten off on going to things that aren’t my usual. I’ve spent years in the frontlines of every metal band that has toured in the past six years…I need something new.

Back in the beginning of HRC, I used to cover more dance music. My first love is to dance, but when I started trying to write about dance music, I really couldn’t. It’s not that interesting to write about. And then the crowds started to piss me off, and I left that whole scene. But there are still some bands that get me back into it, and Crystal Castles in one of them.

Going to these shows is like traveling to a foreign country to me; I do not speak their language, I do not wear their clothes…I am an outsider. But once the music begns, we were all one. Music is the universal language, right?

It began with “Plague”, the first track off the new, mellower album. Suddenly nothing exists but this room. Compared to their last show here, I could actually see this time, though many times I chose not to. When I view the stage, I see a drummer and a singer and it grounds me…instead I want to fly, high like the spaceship that the curvature of the Palladium makes you feel like you’re in. We’re dancing warm and fuzzy, and my friend throws glitter in the air and I die laughing as, periodically through the night, people around us realized they were glistening.

The rollercoaster of their show carried me forward through the night, in a set that felt twice as long as their show from 6 months ago, in the best way possible. Since I could walk I have danced to music, feeling it nuzzle up against every curvature of my body. It was my first love, and it will be my last.