Click here for photos of Crystal Stilts at Brooklyn Museum on November 7th, 2009 in the QRO Concert Photo Gallery Click here for photos of Crystal Stilts at Prospect Park Bandshell in Brooklyn, NY on August 1st, 2009 in the QRO Concert Photo Gallery
Click here for photos of Crystal Stilts at CMJ 2008 in New York, NY the QRO Concert Photo Gallery
The whole experience of watching the Crystal Stilts at Start The Bus in Bristol on Friday, March 25th arced back to a time when bands played on small sweaty stages just inches from the audience. This gig had all these hallmarks, from the tiny stage in the corner of a darkened dance floor to the entrance stamp drawn on with a Sharpie marker pen.
The Brooklyn based five-piece took to the stage without introduction at just after 11pm; they arrived through the small crowd and took their places on the stage immediately blasting into the infectious “Sycamore Tree” from their new sophomore album, In Love with Oblivion.
Lead singer Brad Hargett seemed relaxed as he sipped beer and chatted aimlessly with the crowd in between “Through the Floor” and “Silversun”, both also from the new album. The band motored through the majority of the new album, which was well received by the entire audience, some even singing each song word for word.
The Crystal Stilts seemed in their element playing their new material to the small but enthusiastic crowd, playing to the audience and even taking requests when they were screamed out by fans in between songs – which seemed out of character from previous reviews of the band live, but they were, however, relaxed and engaged with the audience in this arena. The band seemed polished and were note for note perfect on each song, indicating that the hours in the practice room were well invested and worries that they would not match up to their studio efforts were dumbfounded.
In Love With Oblivion does not suffer from sophomore album syndrome, delivering the same power and mixture of Forrester’s majestic keys and Hargett’s eclectic and hauntingly beautiful vocals pull together just like their first offering.
The noise pop quintet ended the set with crowd pleasers from the critically acclaimed 2008 effort Alight of Night (QRO review). Much to the delight of the Bristol crowd, these included the brilliant “Shattered Shine”, which sent the crowd home with memories of Hargett’s echoing haunting vocals filling their dreams for the rest of the night.
