I was already exhausted when Sleigh Bells took the main stage around 8 pm on Saturday at the FYF Fest, mostly exhausted from fighting to keep my spot in the first rows, which was becoming harder and harder as the minutes would pass. I gave up half way through their set, letting the four voluminous girls who were pushing me since the beginning, win my spot,… but it wasn't an admittance I was way too old for concerts, just too old for fighting against imposing 20-year-old who take too much space.
But, beside the distraction, Sleigh Bells was good and aggressive as usual, with their stack of Marshall amps in the back, and center-stage, restless Alexis Krauss haranguing the crowd with all her sexiness and screaming high-pitch voice. The show was an aggression for senses by all means, the loudness destroyed eardrums, the flashing lights blinded the crowd after a few seconds, and the constant high-energy brought everyone on their knees after a few songs. If you are already tired, a Sleigh Bells show will either pump you up, or kill you.
Wearing jeans shorts and a black leather jacket, Alexis Krauss was a fury on stage, she rang a few hell’s bells and used a sort of hip hop delivery on many songs, which sounded like heavy rap with metal/hard rock riffs. The horrifically loud and thunderous sound – which made my video below totally useless – exploded repeatedly while matching the light explosions, and relayed on screeching guitars and assaults in series.
Krauss seemed to use her sensual, breathy, going-crescendo voice as another weapon, Beastie-Boys’-Rhymin-and-Stealin-style, as she was a tireless and hysteric cheerleader, constantly screaming to the crowd some ‘That’s what I am talking about’, and ‘Here we go Los Angeles’, keeping her performance on a constant out-of-breathe level, giving all she had in an instant.
I recognized old songs off their album ‘Treats’ like ‘Infinity Guitars’ as well as several others, and they sounded more effective than the new ones, probably because I already knew them.
At the end, all this sounded like a victory song after a deadly arena game during a Roman empire of the future, even the clamor of the crowd seemed to be included in the music,… was someone about to die or be sacrificed? I don’t know, but despite some rare quieter moments bathed in blue and gold lights, getting more mysterious and darker and letting the energy down a bit, the stomp and distortion were back soon, reinstalling the terror.