The Palace was host to a full house for the Big Day Out tour sideshow of Crystal Castles on a warm Friday night in Melbourne. When I arrived My Disco had just started playing and I wasn’t actually sure for quite some time whether they were still sound checking or already playing. Apparently it was the latter. Still, once I got the hang of it, they were producing quite a few interesting sounds with a couple of guitars and a synth, even though there didn’t appear to be much going on.

When the MC walked onto the stage after a half hour break, I thought he was preparing us for the announcement that the show was about to be cancelled but instead he said, “As you may or not be aware, Alice Glass has broken her ankle. Her doctor told her not to play this show. Do you know what Alice Glass said to her doctor?” A long pause. “She said ‘Go f*ck yourself’. Ladies and gentlemen, Crystal Castles”. What a relief. Yes indeed, the Crystal Castles vocalist came onto the stage in crutches with a cast up to mid-calf and took to the microphone like it was no big deal.

Obviously a normally very active singer, Glass made do with her cast & crutches and still managed to put a lot of energy into the performance, moving her head and torso around with much gusto during Fainting Spells, Baptism and Courtship Dating amongst others, before fan favourites Crimewave and the track which got them discovered via MySpace originally, a mic check recording called Alice Practice. The tracks from the most recent album, including Doe Deer are less interesting live due to the volume making it hard to differentiate sounds but Celestica is still beautiful.

The strobe lights, whilst there was a warning at the entrance, were still intense and made it hard to look toward the stage without squinting. Ethan Kath kept his trademark hoodie up for the duration of the set. Glass’ vocals were overpowered by the bass, which shook the dance floor and the balconies. The indie electro duo produced smooth, synth and beat heavy tracks with heaps of vocal effects. Not getting the opportunity to hear Glass’ natural voice was a little disappointing, but mystery is kind of their thing.

Finishing up with an encore including their highest Triple J Hottest 100 entry, Not In Love, featuring Robert Smith from The Cure at the end of a solid set, Crystal Castles loudly proved they had what it takes to rock the Big Day Out stage on tour, injured or otherwise.