The Horrors and Crystal Castles - London Astoria

Instrumentalist Ethan Kath and vocalist Alice Glass heavily sample Sonic the Hedgehog and friends, and rumour has it they’ve even planted an Atari chip into their keyboard. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, when pumped through speakers this creates an infectious party inducing sound, deserved of the hype surrounding them. The old-school samples have the ability to sound fresh, and the fast bleeps and beats produce music that’s ready to burst.

Unsurprisingly, it all sounds a bit disappointing live; the samples suffocate under the dominating bass and whilst Alice’s screamo singing style suits their bleep-bleep music, it soon becomes bleeping irritating. However, the game boy and girl impressively fill the stage, with Alice darting around like a pinball, and their filthy retro-electro beats excite the (mostly under 18) crowd whose appreciation rumbles across the floor. Ultimately, Crystal Castles are a hoot, and succeed in revving up the audience for the headline act, The Horrors.

The super stylish headliners appear under some effective strobe lighting, instantly evoking images of the un-dead and perfectly setting the scene for their self-confessed, “psychic sounds for freaks and weirdos.” Keeping the morbid theme going, they silently launch straight into their set, hurling song after song at the crowd, like ghouls jumping out on a ghost train.

Dubbed the ‘most exciting band since the sex pistols,’ and gracing the front cover of the NME after only two singles, The Horrors have a lot to live up to. Looking up at the five pointy silhouettes with their impressively massive manes, they are rigid in performance which could easily be interpreted as awkward but that's clearly not the case; instead they ooze confidence and are seemingly expectant of the applause they receive,

Having seen The Horrors 18 months ago it’s fair to say they’ve got a little too big for their well-polished boots. The band’s once charismatic and surprising gigs have been replaced by a sharp, almost soulless performance. Ironically, this is their downfall.  However, this doesn’t deter his adoring crowd with hoards of mini Horrors roaming around like creepy crawlies, and what they lack in performance they make up in music; Their demonic spiky punk is haunting and rousing, and their standout grinding organ keys add atmosphere (although at times this is drowned out by the bass). Ferris’s growling voice is spine tingling, and his spontaneous dancing humorously reminiscent of Jackson’s Thriller. The fantastic ‘Shena is a Parasite’ receives the biggest cheer and thankfully draws out a taste of  Ferris’s charisma as he spookily snarls; “well, you’re a lively bunch".  Although the performance isn’t as striking as they are capable of, they remain an intriguing and excitingly different band.