Toronto – Perhaps it’s my ever-encroaching age, but when I go to a “live show”, I would prefer my performers to be, well, live. Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland are no spring chickens either, having been on the club circuit since the early 90’s as The Crystal Method, but I have to admit that I was somewhat underwhelmed with watching two guys fiddle about with their soundboard things whilst pre-recorded music played. At least bounce a little, guys, if you’re expecting your crowd to. It seemed as though they were relying far too much on the light show to stir the crowd up, and while it was perfectly synced to the music that was playing, it was also somewhat overwhelming – and this is speaking as someone who had the misfortune to be wrecked out of her mind and right up against the stage at the U2 Zooropa concert with the huge television screens that were constantly alternating between Lou Reed staring sternly at me and penguins with burning crosses that turned into swastikas.
This was, however, one of the rare concerts that actually had most of the crowd moving in some fashion. I don’t want to harp on incessantly about Toronto crowds not moving, but for the love of God, what are you people doing here otherwise? That being said, the energy level overall was good, but I do think that it’s easy to feel energetic for such a short period of time with such heavy bass going. The Crystal Method set lasted all of 45 minutes, and the entire show was pretty much over by 10pm, which was a shock to the system after having been conditioned by other performers to expect delays and very late nights (even on work nights, you thoughtless bastards).
Being that I haven’t really followed The Crystal Method since I was a wee ravette/goth, a lot of the other songs were lost on me, but the clavicle shaking bass was a comfortingly familiar sensation. They finished off their set with their best known track, “Keep Hope Alive”, which made me queerly nostalgic for glowsticks and cheap E.
In all honesty, I could heard this set at a nice, cozy, illegal rave, wondering idly if the light show was my grandmother trying to contact me from the beyond, paying 6 dollars for a bottle of water, and have been just as happy. This is definitely a concert for the die hard fans only.