Ladytron and Datarock at the Belly Up

 Rawk Shows   

(I love that some jokester at the BUT mixed up the bands names. )

It was a great night to be out at the Belly Up. We got there at 9 and I was surprised that the show was sold out. Who knew that there were so many indie dance fans out there? After getting a Stella, we got closer to the stage as Datarock had already started their set. (You knew it was them because they were all wearing matching red Datarock sweatsuits. ) They were freaking awesome. I was only expecting the duo of Fredrik Saroea and Ketil Mosnes (below) but they brought a couple extra people on tour.

I love that their touring sax/keyboard/guitar/drum machine player got all crazy and went shirtless.

The set change unveiled a 4 huge light boards and 4 tall, thin LED panels. So a great light show was gonna happen. I decided I was not going to take any flash photos because I wanted to really capture the dark atmosphere, so my photos are sparse and grainy. But I still got a couple of good ones. (All photos including the ones I took of Datarock are here. )

So...photos, then commentary and then setlist.

(Mira Aroyo)

(Helen Marnie)

I had listened to their new album a ton before coming to the show, so I was familiar with all the new material that they were playing. I was surprised at how dark it came across live, because it really doesn’t sound that way when you are playing the album. Don’t get me wrong, I dug on the darkness. I just think that if you’re not into that and you want sweaty dance music like Datarock that you would be very disappointed. I’m sure it also doesn’t help when Mira is not singing in English (is it French?). They started off with “Black Cat” so it set the stage for a darker, brooding atmosphere. The light show really added to the vibe - it stayed dark for most of the night but when the material got intense so did the lights. I loved that they did blue lights for “Deep Blue” (most of the night the lights were hues of reds and yellows). Old school fans were happy when they played “Discotraxx” near the end of the set. Actually, those last four songs before the encore were really good. The encore consisted of two new songs and the second single off their last album “Destroy Everything You Touch”. A solid performance for sure.

Ladytron
Belly Up Tavern Solana Beach
5/31/08

Encore:
Kletva
Burning Up
Destroy Everything You Touch

P.S. If you haven’t already, grab “Black Cat” in the listen section.