Upon arriving at the Granada Theater Tuesday night, it was obvious electro-pop band Crystal Castles had sold out the venue for the Dallas stop of their debut album tour.
Fans stood with cases of beer in a mile long line that swept through the Snuffer’s parking lot all the way back into residential streets waiting for the doors to open. However, two hours went by after the scheduled opening time without any progressive movement or word of the show’s current status.
It wasn’t until 10:30 p.m. that a man from the Granada came out to announce the show had been cancelled. That’s right; with over 1,000 attendees pushing at the gates Crystal Castles popped the balloons of adoration in every one of their fan’s hearts.
Of course the band immediately had a representative publish a statement, but it wasn’t of apology. Instead, Crystal Castles (or at least their representative) released a defensive statement blaming the Granada for pulling the plug on their set claiming it would blow the sound system. They also made time for a shout out to all their angry fans.
“It would be nice if you knew the truth and were fair to the band since this wasn’t their fault,” said the release. “The blame goes to whoever booked this band at this ill-equipped venue.”
But owner of the Granada, Mike Schoder told a different version of the story. He released a statement early Wednesday saying the cancellation was unanticipated and that the band was unhappy with the “sound of their kick drum.” After requests by Crystal Castles to have more speakers brought in and several attempts by the venue to relocate sub woofers for better kick drum effect, Schoder said the band wasn’t having it anymore.
“CC says they would rather cancel the show than possibly not have enough kick drum,” Schoder said in his rundown of Tuesday night’s events. “Why would anyone crap on their fans like this?”
But that wasn’t the only drama from the night. It started after Austin-based band, Vega was removed from Tuesday’s bill as the opener. Crystal Castles accused the band of stealing an FX-Pedal from them the previous night at a show in Austin. Vega’s co-manager, Daniel Carissimi told reporters the pedal incident was a melodramatic mix up.
“In between their sets Crystal Castles asked to use Ronnie’s (Vega instrumentalist) guitar. We consented,” said Carissimi in an online interview. “After the show CC’s tech packed their pedal into our stuff by accident. We found out later, contacted their people and told them we would bring it to the venue in Dallas.”
The two groups rendezvoused and fixed the problem, but only shortly before another one arose. Carissimi said he was told by Schoder that Vega needed to leave the premise or else Crystal Castles would not enter the building.
So Vega (who sounds heavily influenced by Daft Punk) went to play their own sold-out, headlining show at the Fallout Lounge on Exposition Ave. and Crystal Castles didn’t play a show at all. After hearing both sides to the predicament, it’s easy to see why Schoder started his press release with a simple definition:
“Prima dona: Prima donas cannot help the way they are because their parents spoiled them and they are still developing their personalities. All a prima dona has to do is whine and their parents will give them what they want.”
Schoder also said in his release that the Granada is refunding the cost, including service fee, of each ticket purchased.
