Ladytron & Familjen @ Metro Theatre, Sydney (30/09/08)
Bomber jackets, blue jeans, spiky hair. Hands in pockets and polite conversation. Where am I? The Metro Theatre, Tuesday September 30, to see Ladytron. Now I thought Ladytron were cool. They were. Everyone here was, once. But everyone here is grown up. At an all ages show, my first impression was of a crowd missing its youth.
I turned to my friend, “Based on the crowd, what is your premonition of the show?”
“Tonight we’re going to party like it’s 1995.”
“But Ladytron formed in 1999.”
“Well it feels very polite anyway. I don’t think I am going to spill my drink when things get out of hand.”
I turned to the nearest patron. “Are you here to see Familjen or Ladytron?”
“Ladytron.”
“Why?”
“Because I like them.”
If he answered “Because I said so,” it would have been a great come back. He didn’t. My friend laughed, “Let’s go in.”
We walked into the theatre just as Swedish artists Familjen played the first notes of the first bar of their first track. The crowd were a bit thin on the ground, but I was happy not to have to focus on them. Familjen started old school, with acid rhythms off a Roland 303. I was surprised, I thought they would be more spacious and contemporary. Sharper but nicer. No, they just played techno. Decked out in dinosaur print jumpers and tetradactyl haircuts. Really old school! It doesn’t get much older, for us mammals.
“Dirty beats,” said my friend, “and dirty hair. It needs a wash”.
“Be kind. Maybe he identifies as Dutch gabba. Besides, I don’t think they had Pantene pre-stone age.”
“No, it’s lank.” Whatever, it was good fun.
They played pretty electro with bounce, including Det lilla livet (Do You Love Angels) and Det snurrar I min skalle (It Spins In My Skull). The woman in front of me got so carried away she danced with scoop hands. Good on her. At least she was having fun; it felt like most of the audience were too busy composing their next email to dance. They played only six tracks but they were all good. Next time I would like to see them onstage longer.
Ladytron did not keep us waiting long. Their intro track mixed African rhythms with heavy bass. Too much bass. Not that it was their fault. Maybe what they worked out during sound check was no good. I don’t know that they had a sound check. But the person on the mixing desk really needed to ease off on the bass. At least the lights were effective. Simple strobe lights were arranged and bought up to build anticipation as people picked up their drumsticks and guitars, switched on their synths and adjusted their mic stands. Ready to play.
The band began with the light-hearted, syth melodies that are characteristic of all their work, with most of the tracks were off their latest album Velocifero. At times though it felt so light that they weren’t there, responding to the crowd. Just moving through the playlist, not bored, but not spirited either. My hair after a long haul flight – dull, flat, wanting pro-V. September 30, where are we? Melbourne? Sydney? Sydney.
It’s not fun when you feel like you are forcing yourself to bop around, when you feel distracted. My friend asked if we had to stay until the end. Just when I thought I’d grown out of electro or suddenly realised it was boring or something, they began to play their first and best known hit: Playgirl. It worked it their favour The crowd started to dance like they knew where they were. The band noticed, and became more energetic. Their subsequent tracks were gutsier, if unfamiliar. The crowd didn’t mind anymore, the band had floated up, found them, and pulled them back down to the dancefloor. At the last minute, it was a good show. They did an encore, and took photos of the crowd. So maybe they worked out how to adapt the playlist for their Australian shows for a mature audience who like a polite introduction to their later work.
Darrenz76 says...
This was a strange gig... I had been looking forward to seeing Ladytron play for some time. Reports from o/s suggested their shows were quite amazing. I'm with the reviewer - it just had no energy at all and the crowd were languid to say the least. People seemed to be waiting to be entertained rather than putting any effort in - perhaps this is due in some part to it being on a Monday? And yes, the sound was terrible! Having a lot of bass is fine, but everything surrounding it was flat and dull. The band seemed to be distracted by this too - they spent half the gig trying to communicate to the sound guy. I've been to a few gigs at The Metro lately where the sound has been terrible (The Breeders was a disgrace) - hopefully it is not a sign of things to come.
winston_r says...
i think they are perfectionists and nothing bothers them more than bad sound. Their show at the espy was very good though.