Crystal Method Mixes Chatter With Some Blistering Beats

The Crystal Method has always kept one foot in the rock world, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that it treated Wednesday’s show at the Sun Theatre in Anaheim as if it were a rock concert in one crucial respect. Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland disregarded the most basic rule of live electronic music by stopping between each song to talk with the audience. They even introduced each other halfway through the set. In the once faceless world of live techno, that is downright brazen.

For fans used to having only a musical rapport with the performers, the pattern of the show did require a brief period of adjustment. Once the audience did that, the impressiveness of the Crystal Method live was in full effect. Drawing heavily on their new album, “Tweekend,” the two fleshed out the CD’s already heavy beats with an added intensity, turning “Name of the Game” and “Roll It Up” into in-your-face assaults. The audience responded in kind, lapping up the frenetic beats and powerful lighting with constant dancing.

Things may have started off slowly, but by the time the duo wrapped up its 75-minute set with a blistering encore of “Busy Child,” capped by an extended climax that felt like it was 200 bpm (beats per minute), the Crystal Method had hit its stride.

Opening acts Uberzone and DJ Static Revenger, both of whom live in LA, gave the audience even more reason to show hometown pride with strong performances as well.