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Reuben Wu, Mira Aroyo, Daniel Hunt and Helena Marnie are the robotically-precise, green-uniformed members fo the synth band, ladytron. (http://www.emperornorton.com) [Click to enlarge]

Drab green uniforms, nearly matching haircuts, matched synthesizers, stern expressions. All the while, Lynch-ian video clips loop over and over in the background, clips of eyeballs, cars speeding down roadways, water dripping, flowers opening, all to the addictive beat of nouveau electro-industrial. Liverpool's Ladytron is the 21st century's answer to New Order, direct successor to Kraftwerk, Die Form and any other number of 1980s European techno synth outfits. They are being called techno-clash by reviewers, but that title does not really describe their sound, or their approach to their music. They are what the future would have looked if the '90s had never happened, if Orwell's predictions of the future had rung more true, if the predictions for the future of the first half of the 20th century had been correct. Ladytron's members are Daniel Hunt, Reuben Wu, Mira Aroyo and Helena Marnie. The band is four synthesizers, two vocalists, and bass and drums added for the tour. This band's music rocks, even if it is executed with robotic precision. You can dance to it like few new techno or industrial acts out there.

Ladytron played at D.C.'s 9:30 Club Monday night, Feb. 17, to a packed house in spite of the huge snow storm. Even though half the roads in the Baltimore-D.C. area were practically impassible, hundreds of people came out to see Ladytron play with Phaser and Simian. Their fans are loyal and dedicated indeed. The trouble to get there was worth all the effort the second the show began. Everything was staged to perfection, yet still held a live energy. This is not an electronic band that programs all of their music into a computer before they go on stage. They really played and played with energy thinly disguised under their unsmiling faces.

First thing, the movie screen at the back of the stage came to life with a huge close-up image of an eye, seemingly flickering to the beat of the music. The four main band members stepped out on stage and behind their Korg keyboards. They looked factory produced, by a one specializing in retro-futuristic dolls, with similar short dark haircuts and matching uniforms. Mira, the Bulgarian ice queen stepped behind the mike for the first song, "True Mathematics," and sang it with her usual deadpan, cold yet sweet voice. After that Helena, part Kewpie Doll, part robot followed with "Playgirl," one of their more successful singles. Her voice is childish-sweet and mixes in interesting ways with the electronic sound of the music. From that point on the two gorgeous, unsmiling creatures traded off vocals for the rest of the set. They played all of the crowd favorites: "Blue Jeans," "He Took her to a Movie," "Seventeen." People danced and tried their damnedest to try to get the girls to crack a smile. At one point, Helena half-broke her persona and almost smiled. She stepped up to the mike and said in an amazingly sweet, Scottish accented voice, "I'm smiling," before falling back to her blank expression. That was the only moment in their one-and-a-half hour set that any of them broke character.

The set went by too fast. Their music is so danceable and addictive that no one in the audience wanted it to stop. Ladytron recognized this, and paid attention to the frenzied clapping. At the end of the evening, they proved that despite their expressionless faces, they do listen to the crowd by playing two encore sets. The first encore they played three of their own songs. The surprise was in the second encore. The final song of the evening was a pumped-up, techno version of Tweet's song Oops, proving that this band does not live in a retro bubble. Maybe that is why they are so good - they take from any genre and any time and use the varied influences in ways that suit their music. The cover song was a suitably unexpected end to an evening that was full of familiar retro sounds made new again with a fresh approach.

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