Crystal Castles Tickets

Short Biography

A huge buzz of anticipation accompanies the first headline show on these shores by the beautifully confrontational CRYSTAL CASTLES. The Toronto duo kicks off a trip downunder for the Big Day Out, stopping over for one show at The Studio in Auckland on 15 January 2013.


Crystal Castles only just made it to Auckland's 2011 Big Day Out. Alice Glass's broken foot severely curtailed the antics of a band with a reputation for a ferocious live show. So selling out Auckland's Studio should not be a challenge as they ride a huge buzz of anticipation on current single Plague and impending (self-titled again) third album.


This is a show with something to really look forward to. The icy synth beats and white hot noise of Crystal Castles recordings are taken to a new level of intensity by Alice's chaotic crowd-surfing performances.

DrownedinSound warns us of "ferocious, asphyxiating sheets of warped two-dimensional Gameboy glitches and bruising drum bombast that pierces your skull with their sheer shrill force, burrowing deep into the brain like a fever."

The BBC likens it to being "cast adrift in a vortex of deafening pain without a safety net. You get the feeling you could do anything in the world, but that 'anything' would ultimately mean nothing. Crystal Castles marks a nuanced emotional territory that dance music never covered before."


"Dangerous, demented and utterly thrilling" says NME.


We say it should simply be incredible and this is one unmissable show, certain to sell-out.

In-depth Biography
Fusing low-res electronic noise and pop hooks so effortlessly that it can seem accidental, Crystal Castles began as producer/multi-instrumentalist Ethan Kath's solo project in late 2003. Kath got the moniker from the name of She-Ra's dwelling in the -He-Man and -Masters of the Universe cartoon series; it's also the name of a 1983 Atari video game, which is oddly appropriate, considering that one component of the band's distinctive sound comes from a keyboard modified with an Atari 5200 sound chip. When Kath collaborated with singer Alice Glass on some songs in spring 2005, Crystal Castles' lineup was complete. One of the songs the pair recorded, "Alice Practice," was something of an accident: it was intended to be a demo of Glass testing out a microphone, but its presence on MySpace piqued record labels' interest. "Alice Practice" was released as a limited-edition 7" in summer 2006 on Merok Records, also home to Klaxons; its 500-copy run sold out in three days. Kath and Glass worked on their own songs and also honed their remixing skills, tweaking songs for Klaxons as well as GoodBooks, Uffie, Health, and Bloc Party. Tours with the Presets and Metric in 2007 set the stage for the release of Crystal Castles' self-titled debut album, which Last Gang released early in 2008. The duo returned in 2010 with another self-titled album; when it leaked onto the Internet in late April of that year, the band released it digitally soon after, with a physical release following that May. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi