18 of the greatest gigs ever – according to our critics Crystal Castles, Camden Crawl, 2008

Problematic in every way given singer Alice Glass’s October 2017 statement accusing her former bandmate Ethan Kath of sexual abuse, non-consensual sex and controlling behaviour, but this short set in front of a small crowd in a Camden bar was proof that when a performer truly plugs into the mother lode, the intensity they generate can burn itself into your retinas and shake your soul. Glass was 19 years old, and for most of the set just a blur of spectral movement frozen into violent shapes by an almost incessant strobe; singing, shouting and screaming her way through songs such as “Courtship Dating”. The result was a reminder that whenever one of your heroes gets on stage to try to channel that primal essence of “rock ’n’ roll” – or whatever the hell it is – most of the time, they’re just trying to find an echo of something that once flowed through them. That can go on for 50 years or more. There’s sadness now in the memory, but on this day in April 2008, Glass had it. (Chris Harvey)

PA