Ladytron took the stage Tuesday evening to a packed 9:30 Club, at least for being so early in the week. As I looked around from the balcony it seemed that the audience was made up primarily of men, which I found odd. Most of the people I know that are Ladytron fans are women. Though among the heavily male crowd there was one girl who stood out.
She was six. When asked, she didn’t have a favorite Ladytron song because she liked “all of them.” And when they opened she danced with the enthusiasm that so many of the former-goth kids lacked.
They opened with “Soft Power” off 2005’s Witching Hour. Helen Marnie’s voice quickly took over. The haunting sound of their music creates a distance, both between the members of the band, and the audience. Though, for them, this works. After all, they didn’t develop a cult following of social butterflies, but of those who shroud themselves in a pervasive darkness, those who would rather dance and write alone than be in the company of others—an entire room full of loners.
I was anticipating Ladytron to play more from this year’s Gravity the Seducer, but they played heavily from their back catalog. They played a mere four songs from Gravity during their fifteen song set.
It was during “Ghosts” off 2008’s Velocifero, that the audience became more actively engaged. Though our six-year-old friend was finally reaching her breaking point and soon took a seat.
From there the set grew progressively more up-tempo and moved quickly through “High Rise,” “True Mathematics” allowed those moving to take a break during “White Gold.” “True Mathematics” served as a reminder to us that there is in fact another vocalist in the band, Mira Aroyo. Aroyo speaks more than sings, but is equally as distant as Marnie; neither addressed the audience or engaged with one another on stage.
“Little Black Angel” resonated the most through a crowd of not-so-little black angels, then rolled right into “Discotraxx,” the only song they played from their 2001 debut 604. They closed their fifty minute set with the ever popular “Seventeen.” At its end, the crowd grew restless for more and began chanting “LA-DEE-TRON,” until their return to stage.
They broke into their recent single, “White Elephant” with as much enthusiasm as they could muster before the most anticipated song of the evening, and perhaps their most popular song, “Destroy Everything.” The energy peaked and left the crowd wanting more, in the purist fashion.
Photos by Alison Tremblay
Set List:
Soft Power
International Dateline
Mirage
Ghosts
High Rise
True Mathematics
White Gold
Runaway
Ace of Hz
Little Black Angel
Discotraxxx
Fibua
Seventeen
Encore:
White Elephant
Destroy Everything
