Reading 2008 review: Crystal Castles

Name: Crystal Castles
Where and when: Dance stage, Sunday, 5.25pm, Reading
Dress code: Black leather, strong eyeliner and chipped nail polish.
Who's watching: Those ker-azy kids, still jumping after three days.
In a nutshell: A complete fog courtesy of the smoke machine coats the stage to the point where is difficult to see vocalist Alice Glass make an appearance, though it isn't a problem because she can be heard yelling "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck" for no apparent reason. The Toronto duo's set goes off without a hitch, with typically propulsive performances of Crimewave and Alice Practice resulting in endless screaming and bouncing around from the audience. Their messy techno-punk doesn't cause quite the reported mayhem of their Leeds gig (with Glass getting right into the thick of the crowd) nor does it result in them having the sound cut (as with their Glastonbury 2008 performance) but it does feature the singer leaping from the speakers and playing dead, and is received with a great deal of joy.
High point: Courtship Dating, the track that brought them a reasonable degree of prominence for its (ahem) similarity to the Timbaland produced track Ayo Technology, and which kicks the crowd surfing into gear.
Low point: The smoke machine. Some people couldn't see a bloody thing.
How hard do they rock?: It must be tiring being Alice Glass, flinging herself and around and singing in that high-pitched way. Her knob-twiddling partner Ethan Kath has it easy. Anyway, they rocked just the right side of hard.