The New Music

In the middle of Sleigh Bells’ set at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto on Tuesday, lead singer Alexis Krauss lowered herself into the crowd like she was slowly testing out the temperature of a cold pool. One male audience member went in for a kiss with Alexis. She leaned in close as if to reciprocate and then pushed his head back into the crowd while laughing through their song, “Ring, Ring.” By the end of the show the entire audience seemed appreciative enough to go in for a smooch.

When two of the most buzzed bands of 2010, Sleigh Bells and Die Antwoord decide to co-headline a tour, there can be a ton of expectation. Joe Jonas even tweeted about Brooklyn girl/boy duo Sleigh Bells in May. One of my friends once said that Sleigh Bells is everything you can want in a band; gritty guitar riffs, pounding hip hop beats and saccharine girly vocals. This was Sleigh Bell’s third stop in Toronto in only a handful of months, but the city’s fans were still starving for more.

Sleigh Bells took the stage about half an hour after their scheduled set time, but once they opened with “Tell ‘Em” all grudges had passed. Lead singer Alexis took a breath after the first song and said, “Thank you guys for waiting.” The band pounded through song after song with the bass turned up so high it punctured your lungs and rattled your skeleton. “Now is the time to get fucking sweaty,” Alexis ordered the crowd while thrashing her hair around and propelling herself into the crowd. They played most of their songs from their relatively short archive and ended with the audience favourite “Crown on the Ground.”

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