aaamusic | On 05, Apr 2011

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London, 30th March

Fresh new psychedelic Crystal Stilts at Cargo.

Disorientation. Is this 2011?

New Yorkers – already cult indie band – Crystal Stils in a sold out, stinky and sticky Cargo presents their new record In Love With Oblivion.

Ah, I love it.

Disorientation, I said. Yes. Put the following words in a row: post-punk, shoegaze, garage, indie pop, psychedelic, there you go.

A dusting revival of sixties and seventies sound with floydian hints that creates a mythological garage-pop of unpolished guitars and keyboards.

I was very curious of seeing them live, as I read when on tour for their first work Alight of Night, the performance wasn’t as exciting as expected.

I must admit, there was some energy missing somewhere.

It’s true, it was terribly hot; there were too many people around the stage going in and out the backstage. Something weird was going on around them before and during the gig. Still, the singer looked like he wasn’t there completely. Maybe he was just tired.

Flashback.

Before the gig started as I was by the bar, two adorable super-drunk girls bumped into me. – Wow, even before the gig starts they are already wasted? That’s London, I answered myself.

After a couple of minutes, when I returned to my position next to the stage, they were there again asking (I guess) the band’s keyboard player if they could go on stage and dance (maybe a dance seen in their video – which one???). His smile wasn’t approving though.

Well, after London band, The Tamborines , (shoegaze isn’t dead at all) they’re on stage. The two girls are already furiously dancing leaving their drinks, bags and jackets next to the singer’s feet.

The music started, a drive through neopsychedelia (I have seen Barret somewhere there) and noise pop (Biff Bang Pow!).The catchy melodic pop underneath a coat of obscure and melancholic beats and synth is definitely charming (there were moments I thought the Doors and the Velvet Underground would have probably sounded like that).

The girls. The show. One of them, as when every drink she had was gone, actually drank all of the band’s beers on stage she could reach. Tried to climb on the stage failed, taking down one of the speakers with her.

Annoyed singer.

Mad keyboard player.

Next tune begins and you see her jumping, successfully now, on stage and improvise a senseless dance. The singer kept his apparent calm and slow pace.

In the end the security had to take her away from the front row after she had spilt a beer on the singer – that’s why he played most of the gig with his eyes closed, I suppose.

Beside all, the new record is very good. Even though Brad Hargett (singer) seemed fed up (maybe is part of an old American underground-hippie style?) and Kyle Forester vehemently played the keys, the rest of the band did the job and the new tracks along with the old ones sounded solid and moody as we like it.

Right, it seemed like the band wasn’t there. Question: this nonexistence, this nothingness isn’t maybe just their love for oblivion?

Be ready to get In Love With Oblivion on the 11 of April, it is going to be a must have for 2011.

Author & Photos: Pietro Nastasi