Ladytron!

As those who know me can't avoid hearing, my favorite band in the whole world is Ladytron. Tonight, I got to see them live at long last! I missed their last n shows here in Montréal for all kinds of stupid reasons like "surgery" and "being out of town" . . . so I was thrilled to learn that they were playing a venue about two métro stops from where I live, on a night when I would be free to go see them.

The venue was Théâtre Telus. The night was snowy, but Bonnie and I had to stand in the cold for only about 20 minutes – a short wait, for Montréal. Fortunately, we had tickets, so we got to skip the indoor queue, check our coats, and head to the auditorium. We had never been, so we were happy to see that the place didn't merely have a dancefloor but was basically all dancefloor. A perpetual fear of ours is "live music at some hall where you can't dance."
 
There was some kind of DJ set before the bands came on. To be honest, I didn't even check out who it was – they were lame. I mean, I'll dance to anything with a beat, but these guys were mixing live and mostly doing a bad job. Even the inevitable club kiddies were just kind of standing there, looking at these guys and thinking "WTF?" Fortunately, the DJs only lasted for 40 minutes or so before they were cleared to let the bands set up.

The opening act was The Faint. Strictly, speaking, they're co-headliners with Ladytron on this tour, but it was pretty clear that the crowd was there for Ladytron. The Faint aren't quite my cuppa – they seem like a strange choice to accompany Ladytron (why not, say, Client?) – but they were tight and very danceable. Bonnie and I jumped around to them for about an hour, worked up a nice sweat, and drank lots of $5 ice water.

Then the roadies descended on the stage to prep it for Ladytron. Normally, I ignore that sort of thing. I saw a lot of live music back in Halifax, and lost my interest in the inner workings of gear, stages, tours, etc. most of two decades ago. However, this setup was amusing because of all the freaking synths. Ladytron could open a shop. Seriously . . . I think setup took about 40 minutes, when I'm used to a four-piece plugging in instruments, saying "Check, check," and getting down to business.

Finally, Ladytron hit the stage. It was all I had hoped for: electronic music that sounds as good live as it does on CD, backed up by tour musicians, and tweaked for a live performance. Helen's vocals were a bit washed out in the mix, but not enough to complain about. The band looked good (well, we couldn't see Daniel and Reuben, but they sounded good). Mira did her trademark jumpy dance, while Helen looked like the boss, hand on hip, staring right into us. They played a good set – a balance of stuff from 604, Light & Magic, Witching Hour, and Velocifero – and came back to do "Versus" and "Destroy Everything You Touch" as an encore. Awesome! We danced the whole time.

Oh, that reminds me: Who pays over $30 a head to see live music and then just stands there, hogging space near the stage, drinking beer? The place was full of people who were literally half my age (I'm nearly 42 . . . lots of these people were barely 18), and most of them didn't dance while we danced for two hours. Guys, buy the CDs – it's cheaper! The dancefloor was big and inviting, the music was eminently danceable, and yet an awful lot of people kind of looked like zombies. Scratch that; at least zombies shuffle. Weird.

All told, the night was most excellent. The only downer was getting our coats out of check at the end. We had to wait for half an hour. That simply shouldn't happen. Théâtre Telus really needs to get its act together there.

Ah, but why complain? It was totally worth it. I just hope I get to see Ladytron again on their next swing through town!