Chromeo, Crystal Castles, Boys Noize Destroy Congress Theatre

By Jake Guidry in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 3, 2009 7:20PM

There were plenty of concert options last week to celebrate Halloween, but none may have been quite as raucous as the Freaky Deaky show held Friday night at Congress Theatre. Featuring Chromeo, Crystal Castles and Boys Noize, the night was filled with sweaty bodies, inebriation, surely some illegal substances and, of course, copious amounts of fancy footwork. There are dance parties and then there are proper dance parties--this had drinking tea with the Queen beat.

Local deejays prepped the growing crowd for a couple hours, properly gearing everyone for an unrelenting night of aerobics. The night was officially kicked off around 10:30 as Crystal Castles took the stage, ready to release their hyper-condensed angst only rivaled by mid pubescent emo kids. The electro-punk act ripped through their set, playing everything the fans know, including "Alice Practice" (you know, the one you got down to at the beginning of Hood Internet's first mix tape), and the "Ayo Technology" sound-a-like "Courtship Date". Synths pulsed, drums pumped and Alice Glass literally screamed her lungs out of her body onto some guy dressed as Green Man while the crowd cheered. Glass and Ethan Kath weren't much for words and let their music do the talking in this quick and efficient set that set the platform for Chromeo to amaze.

It took approximately three minutes for the crowd to grow impatient waiting for Chromeo to relieve their Canadian counterparts. Chants of "Chromeo, ohhhhh," circled the venue and, as if the Gods of Dance answered the prayers of thousands, Dave 1 and P-Thugg entered stage right and got right to it with the ever-so-funky "Outta Sight". The show was straight, unabashed, uninhibited fun, towering over their somewhat lackluster Lollapalooza 2008 showing. We blame it on the setting, though, knowing full well the sounds of Chromeo are better enjoyed in an enclosed space. Dave was charming as usual, interacting with the crowd between songs, which included the entire Fancy Footwork album, their new single "Night by Night" and, briefly, Journey's "Don't Stop Believin", sung via vocoder by P-Thugg. They ended their set appropriately with their love ballad "100%". Chromeo indeed gave 110%.

As Chromeo ended thousands stuck around for Boys Noize, the one-man wrecking crew from Germany, known for shredding dance floors across the globe. Boys Noize (Alex Ridha) is fresh of the release of his new album Power and played most of it, much to the crowd's liking. In what was some strange mesh between a hard rock show and a dance party, the crowd moshed and danced simultaneously That's the sort of affect Boys Noize had, causing mental conflicts as we fidgeted uncontrollably. Ridha threw in his gems from Oi Oi Oi including "& Down" and the Feadz remix of "Lava Lava", and towards the end of the set plugged in his completely flipped remix of Feist's "My Moon My Man". As Boys Noize's set ended the crowd became deflated, realizing their night at Congress had come to an end, left only to tell the story of Freaky Deaky.