The Hermaphrodite: Miss Glass

Crystal Castles, named after 80’s cartoon character She-Ra’s “fortress in the sky”, is made up of instrumentalist Ethan Kath and singer Alice Glass. Up on the monstrosity of a platform known as the Queen of the Valley stage near the main entrance to All Points West, the diminutive Alice exuded massive amounts of energy as soon as so popped into view. Once the first beat dropped, fog and flashing white strobe lights blared on and off all around the stage. Alice had one large light in tow, and she jaunted back and forth across the left and right sides of the stage at a cheetah’s pace. Although the effects were visually appealing and extremely appropriate for the electropop genre, the scene would probably not be ideal for those prone to seizures.

Miss Glass wore a tight, knitted grey skirt with leggings and a black jacket, and some sneakers. From a distance, Miss Glass has very androgynous features, and because the vocals were very low, it was hard to tell that she even WAS a woman! The balance of the vocals to the band did not seem to match well, and sadly, some of the beautiful parts ended up being lost in a sea of store doorbells. Alice even climbed up a large stack of speakers at one point and casually draped her legs over them during the third song of the band performance. Although the energy of the group (or rather, the person) matched the frenetic stage performance, the lack of loud vocals may have very well left fans of the band disappointed.