Let's start with the positives, shall we? Well, Positive - singular. Alice Glass is an intriguing stage presence. As I watched Crystal Castles lengthily delayed and predictably strobe-lit show at Dick's on Friday I found myself, at times, critically disengaged - entertained, even - by all the spindly flailing and inaudible chanting going on. For a minute I imagined that Ethan Kane, fake-playing his synths and samplers stage left, was something more akin to a puppet master than a musician, his machines hooked up to a radio transmitter that was dictating Alice's movements, her voice, whether or not she would stay on stage for two songs or ten or twelve. In fact, that explanation is probably pretty close to what was actually going on.

Alice Glass. Is she attractive? I'm not really sure. Is she talented? From what I could tell from the few moments when her shriek managed to break above whatever limiter her voice was being processed through, no, she''s not. Does she - or Ethan Kath/Claudio/Smelly Blackleather - have any right to consistently pull the sort of prima donna bullshit usually reserved only for the likes of whatever idiot will be the next person kicked off of Diddy's 'Making The Band'? Sure. They have the right to do whatever the fuck they want. However, they shouldn't be allowed to do it without us raising our hands and asking the real question, that is, Why we do we, as the discerning public, continue to give a goddamn about Crystal Castles?

I guess it comes down to people being so desperate for something - anything - to hope for and get excited about and find meaning in that Crystal Castles' premeditated and preemptive posture of unpredictability may manage to come across as something authentically raw and/or nihilistic. In reality, however, all that the no-shows, premature exits, prerecorded instrumentation (or, mixing thereof), and three hour delays of the band's young career seem to exhibit is an apparent contempt for their audience at large. That, and a lack of interest in creating any sort of lasting contribution to, well, anything. And this is all fine as well; in a lot of ways I support controlled nihilism and a purposeful avoidance of performing one's duties as expected. It's just that with Crystal Castles, the whole shtick seems to be at the expense of a clueless and adoring public who are too wrapt up in trying to feel something to recognize and perhaps enjoy the potentially subversive aspect of CC's 'Lie, Cheat, Steal' ethos.

Or maybe I could have summed this whole thing up best by saying that the ballsy-est and most-fun thing I witnessed all night was when the gay kid walked up to the circle of four dudes I was standing in to give one of my friends a shot of Jagermeister. "This is for you," he said, before squeezing my friend's arm, walking a few feet away, and leaning on the wall while staring towards our conversation. There was no waiting for better timing, no ambivalence interfering with the conveyance of intentions, and no fucking around. And it got me thinking that it probably wouldn't hurt Crystal Castles to ditch the conceited bullshit and try something along the same purposeful lines, instead of making us all feel like we're on the losing side of a bad joke.