What Method?

So the set opened with a dumbed down rendition of "Born too slow" off their current "Legion of Boom" album, it was their way of saying "what you hear now is from us", and before we knew it we were meandering pointlessly in the suburbs of loopsville.

The same bland beats, with precious little covering. It was thin and not clever at all - almost the exact opposite of most of the music off any of their albums.

We were starved of their trademark intelligent use of LFO and rich multi layered music.

A girl I was near asked me "what do think of this?". "I hate it" I replied. "Yeah I know, I though it was just me."

"Are they improvising" she asked again. "yes" I screamed over the shrill. "Well I wish they wouldn't!" she grizzled.

These feelings were expressed to me by other dejected creatures around me.

And so this went on for most of the night, with only the vague sniff of intelligent gurgle synth usage, and way too many pointless climaxes with no foundation that were prophylactic-like in the way they prevented the music from bearing fruit.

Numerous time my frustration manifested itself with me yelling abuse at the DJ duo as it was blasted away by loops that Adam used as a boy.

Then finally with 15 minutes left to their gig they started to tease, then form a sequence that showed the talent that their fans know they have, but were sitting on all night. It was full, rich, textured and all so funky - finally something to get into! And then the horrific realisation - It was in large part based on sounds and textures ripped from Jean Michel Jarre's album Rendezvous.

God Help me now! The only "improvisation" that actually worked all night was based on someone else's genius.

Well they started late, but they were going to finish on time, and so at 2:00am they wound down the track and said their thanks and farewells.

Thankfully in a way that's uncharacteristic for a Brisbane crowd, they went wild, and the cheering, yelling and wolf whistles blasted the air even more forcefully than the gig itself. This was sustained for an impressive length of time.

After taking time for consideration, the Crystal Method acknowledge their audience, tortured by a fruitless night of loops and unintelligent blasts of bass, and teased them with a whiff of "Busy Child" from their album "Vegas". The crowd responded with an unrestrained roar of approval and delight.

And so they delivered the "Busy Child" and it was a joy to behold. Every floor in the Family nightclub throbbed and pulsed with tired and frustrated people dancing with renewed intensity to a fine example of Crystal Method genius.

They stretched it out a little and guided and developed it, but were happy to allow it to be itself with all it's layers, texture and intelligence intact.

Then that was it. Another oscillation wind down, some words of appreciation from them and they were on their way.

Now I appreciate that this was a DJ gig in a DJ environment, and that to expect them to play music from their albums would place barriers to their ability to be spontaneous and creative and "feed off the crowd" and my response would be; If only they had the discipline to provide their live performances with a few more of the "barriers" of their excellent album music to rebel against.

Pax