There are few things you could have crowbarred onto the poster for this gig to make me more excited. The most exciting new guitar band in Britain? A dubstep supergroup with a massive live reputation? An era defining band who, from all reports I'd heard, were one of the greatest live bands on the planet? And Everything Everything whose set I could have a little rest in midway through? Awesome.
This gig had nothing but "brilliant" written all over it. It was my first time going to Brixton Academy and I loved it as soon as I arrived, from the outside to the foyer to the inner sanctum. Despite a few hitches in the journey up there (which nearly involved a lift to Wimbledon from a pikey who's blown a speaker in his car from excessive dubstep abuse) my friends and I managed to perch ourselves just a little behind the barrier, slap bang in the middle of the pit.
I wasn't quite sure what reception The Vaccines would get, but I was hoping it was going to be a big one. They were the first act so of course the reception wasn't immediately amazing, it never is. But the crowd got better and better as set went on, and by the time we reached the brilliant "If You Wanna", the ground was alive with jumping, thrashing, flailing and singing. I was amazed that the opening act ended up with such a reaction, and it was clear that tunes like "Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra)" and "Post-Breakup Sex" had the audience enthralled. I've got a huge hankering to see these guys at one of their own gigs now.
I've never been majorly fussed about Everything Everything; their music's far too jam packed for me, they end up striking me as a cross between Herbie Hancock and a Klaxons tribute act. Having said that, they were a fantastic live act. Brilliant energy, a surprising number of big fans in the audience, it was great, even if the frantic, pernickety nature of the music didn't quite translate. The big sinalong choruses of The Vaccines were traded for mock scat singing where I was. I would probably have enjoyed their set a lot more if the crowd didn't decide to become a bunch of douche bags during it. I'm a huge fan of moshing and leaping around, but Everything Everything's whole set was just full of pointless, slow pushing, two idiots dressed in tiger suits shoving around like utter morons. The crowed spaced out for a dance off where I was and one dude casually whipped out a backflip which was pretty cool, but it sadly didn't make up for the immense douchebaggery of the rest of the crowed where I was. Still, never mind!
I was incredibly excited for Magnetic Man. I've never really listened to them a great deal, but what I had heard I liked, and I'd heard they were a great live act. Needless to say, they exceed all possible expectations. They were one of the greatest live acts I've ever seen! The songs filled the place to the brim, the whole audience bouncing, swaying and jumping to their massive, sublime dubstep sounds. "I Need Air" and "Fire" were HUGE, the crowed were wild, and things reached anthemic fever pitch when they busted out "Getting Nowhere" and Jonathan from Everything Everything took to the stage to sing what would normally be John Legend's vocal line. Their whole set was sensational. The bass was overwhelming, made me trousers shake and my chest quiver. There were a few especially brilliant moments where me and those around me just went "OH!" when the perfect frequency rumbled through us. However, the thing that made their set was undoubtedly their guest MC, Sgt Pokes. Lollopping around the stage like some ghoulish, dreadlocked yeti, his banter with the crowd was sublime ("I SAY MAGNETIC, YOU SAY MAN!"), he had the crowed rapped around his finger. And he had the single most terrifying laugh I have ever heard. That man should be a Bond villain.
And then. Oh and then. Then came Crystal Castles. Crystal Castles' live reputation preceded them like an Aladdin style parade. With glowsticks. And trumpets, big ones. It was clear that everyone in there was ridiculously hyped. There were euphoric cheers as the backdrop was lowered, depicting their album cover. Frantic shoving flooded the pit, everyone vying for position. And eventually, inevitably, they arrived. Ethan Kath and the band's live drummer loomed out onto the stage, taking their place behind sound decks and drum kit respectively. Alice Glass, the oh so desriable and frickin' crazy frontwoman, was nowhere to be seen. The lights lowered, and a wiry, shadowy figure was discernible in the gloom. The distinctive sound of opener "Fainting Spells" began to pump through the venue. The lights started flashing. And there she was, stage left. Staggering on, on crutches because of her sprained ankle, like a Satanic marionette. One crutch soon disappeared, the grabbed the microphone and the greatest live band I have ever seen began to tear the place apart. The whole set was one intense, throbbing, terrifying assault on the senses. And it was amazing. Alice Glass hopped and thrashed around the stage, the only woman to ever make a foot brace look badass and terrifyingly sexy. By the time she was (admittedly inaudibly) screeching out the chorus to the fan favourite "Baptism", the second song of the set, we were already under her spell. She went from hopping to crawling around the stage, thrashing and bouncing on the floor, to finally leaning into the crowd in the closing number, where every hand within fifty metres started stretching out for her like zombies punching out of the grave. Exaggerated hyperbole you say? Perhaps. But I've never seen a frontwoman whip up a crowd like that. Ethan Kath remained as brooding and taciturn as one would expect, but I think I detected a wee smile playing around his lips at one point. Maybe. The harsh, glitchy noise didn't exactly result in cheery singalongs, and I think there were very few people who could tell exactly what song was playing at any one time. But that's irrelevant.
Every other act tonight was fantastic. But Crystal Castles. They were something else. During their set I was nearly pickpocketed by a fat guy with a scratchy beard. I had to put up with dome twattish Canadian guy who was trying to shove to the front at the expense of some poor girls at the front, before one of the security guys thwacked him in the head. I had every crowed surfer who got pulled out of the crowed smashing into the back of my big curly head. I got more battered than at any other gig I've been to. But I didn't care. They were the greatest live act I've ever seen. They were on another level. Before their encore, they finished with fan favourite "Not In Love", every person in Brixton Academy belting out "I'M NOT IN LOVE!" Well. I'd beg to differ. Oh I would SEVERELY beg to differ.
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