The 2010 HARD Tour feat. Crystal Castles/Rusko/Sinden/Destructo

My friends and I walked into Metropolis a few minutes after 8 p.m. just as the show was starting, at least according to the timeslots I’d found online, which later proved to be all kinds of inaccurate.  We got there a lot earlier than planned so I was a little unenthusiastic mostly due to the fact that: A) this is Montreal where the party doesn’t get going ‘till 11 p.m., B) this was a Sunday night, surely not the busiest night of the week and C) Destructo, the opening DJ and only artist on the line-up I didn’t know was going to be playing ‘till 9 p.m. (I’m a little jaded and by default never expect much from opening DJs). I figured I was going to be in for a long hour of monotonous electro beats and watching the crowd slowly trickle in as a dozen diehards tried to get the dance floor started. Suffice it to say I was in for a surprise.  There must have been 1,000 people there already and not a single one shared my opinion of what a dance floor is supposed to look like at 8 p.m. on a Sunday night. The place was absolutely going off. That’ll teach me to be a cynic. 

After I got over the shock of seeing the crowd and actually started to take in the whole set up I was suitably impressed. I’ve been to other DJ shows at Metropolis before and the stage set up is never anything to write home about: lights, table, banner of some kind, DJ. It was clear that HARD had some stricter expectations. The DJ booth looked great, it was raised behind a long LED screen that primarily displayed whoever happened to DJ, peppered with various visual effects and images. Certainly made the whole show appear more professional than most I’ve gone to in the past. There were a few visible but as of yet unused LED towers behind the DJ on the stage and a standard Metropolis lighting rig above the crowd as well. 

It was becoming clear that I’d severely underestimated this event and that this night was going to be full of surprises. Destructo was one of them. There’s something that needs to be kept in mind about this show before going forward: it wasn’t necessarily a Crystal Castles tour, it was the HARD Summer Tour 2010 with Crystal Castles headlining; emphasis on HARD. Destructo is the man behind the HARD Tour and the festival that takes place every year in L.A. He definitely played accordingly. His sound consisted mainly of heavy electro bangers with a particular focus on big buildups and drops. The bass was so intense that he literally had the whole building shaking, the TVs bolted to the walls looked like they were about ready to fall off. He did an excellent job of getting both the crowd and I worked up and ready to party. 

Sinden hopped on a few minutes after 9, a little delayed due to some technical difficulties getting set up. He toned down the heaviness a little bit and added a bit of dub and dancehall flair. Which isn’t to say that the atmosphere of the party suffered at all for it; the first few crowd surfers started popping up during this hour. His set reminded me a lot of a Major Lazer set actually. In fact he dropped at least one Major Lazer track and a few regular staples from Major Lazer sets ("Manges [Sharkslayer Dub]" by Digital Manges and "Underground Sound" by Seductive; if you don’t know them check them out). His sound wasn’t as focused on big drops as it was on percussive sounds and building a solid groove. It’s around this time that I realized this was an all-ages show, there was a group of at least five 12-year-olds really rocking out right next to us. I’m used to the drunken, messy hipster crowd these shows normally draw in so this was definitely a little bit of a shocker to me. 

When Rusko came on at 10 p.m. things really started to get crazy. I knew he was the biggest face leading the current mainstream tip of dubstep that’s blowing up right now but I guess I hadn’t realized how big he’s gotten. The second he even stepped onto the stage, during Sinden’s set mind you, the crowd exploded. Everyone started screaming, beer started getting thrown all over the place and I overheard a bunch of people around us start yelling “It’s him!” and “This is going to be crazy!” Frankly I was a little disappointed with his set. I prefer my dubstep dark and aggressive whereas his definitely took on a lighter, almost poppy tone. He played a lot of tracks with melodic female vocals and some straight up pop remixes, as well as classics everyone would recognize like a remix of “Day ‘n Night” by Kid Cudi and “Where’s My Money” by Caspa. While his basslines were undoubtedly heavy they eventually got a little monotonous. He’s carved himself such a niche that eventually it all just sounded the same. That being said the people on the dance floor still lost it; despite my complaints it’s clear that his sound has found a wide and dedicated fan base. It definitely wasn’t for everyone though. A lot of people went up on the balcony to see refuge from the near mosh pit the dance floor had become, me included. I was a little confused by the combination of Rusko and Crystal Castles when I first heard about the show and while it definitely worked for the majority there was still a portion of the crowd upstairs with very clear “WTF is this?” looks on their faces. His set ended around 11:15.

It took 25 minutes for the stage crew to clear out the DJ booth and set up Crystal Castles' drum set and keyboards. They had set up the stage so that the LED towers surrounded Crystal Castles in a semi-circle pattern and in between each set of towers were some strobes.  I normally wouldn’t bother explaining what the stage set-up looked like but theirs played a big roll in their show. They’re definitely a band that is very aware of their image and the set-up was designed to compliment that. When they did come on all of Metropolis went dark except for those LED towers or strobes, which would take turns lighting the venue with basically seizure-inducing flashes. I’m not sure the lights ever stayed on consistently for more than 1 second at a time. It created a very chaotic, violent atmosphere that worked exceptionally well with their presence and sound.

The other effect was that the band members were little more than silhouettes on stage because the lighting was all behind them. Maybe this wasn’t the case for those down in the pit as I was still on the balcony for this but I’m almost certain it had to look the same everywhere. It was particularly cool and off-putting at times when it came to Alice, their vocalist. She never stops moving, ever. The whole time she’s jumping or bouncing around, flailing her whole body, throwing herself on the ground or into the crowd. During their more melodic songs like “Empathy” the fact that she was just a silhouette made her body seem very disassociated from her voice. I couldn’t make sense of how someone moving so violently and chaotically could sound so calm. I almost wanted to be able to see her lips just so I could understand it. It gave the whole thing a ghostly kind of ethereal feel that I really enjoyed. As performers they were excellent. The raw, lo-fi feel of their music sounded even better in a live setting and despite all the filters she sings through it’s easy to tell Alice has an absolutely beautiful voice.

Like everything else about them their set was pretty abrupt. Around 12:20 or so as soon as they’d hit the last note on one of their songs (I didn’t have the foresight to note which one) the lights came on and without a word they all got up and walked right off stage. It was so quick that I wasn’t even sure what was happening. Then the lights went off and they back on just as quickly. I figured out later that this was their encore but at the time I wasn’t even sure. My friends and I left 10 minutes after and I founded out that they were done a few minutes after that. All told their set clocked in around 50 minutes long. It might have been short but considering how energetic and relentless it was I can’t say I blame them. 

While Crystal Castles may have been the act I was least familiar with going into the show they definitely impressed me the most. I look forward to seeing them again in the future and really recommend you do to if you get the chance.

-Patrick Meloche