Wish You Were There With... Ladytron & CSS!

Walking onto the Mershon Black Box stage to the vivacious energy of CSS my first impression was: "Wow, this is really different from the record." I wondered how they’d pull off so much of their hook-heavy music live and I must admit at first I felt a little let down that it wasn’t as "polished" as the album. But, after just about a song-and-a-half I had already given up on the notion of comparing this experience to the record and just started enjoying it for what it was... a totally raw and shameless take on their Sub Pop debut, Cansei De Ser Sexy. For many people the CSS album proved quite polarizing, you either loved it or you hated it (and for the record, I really loved it). The great thing about tonight is that I truly believe this show would have been quite entertaining for kids in either camp. Whether they were pulling people on stage to dance, humping mic stands or crowd surfing as lead singer Lovefoxxx did during their over-the-top finale of "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above", CSS (despite the lack of alcohol in the venue) were determined to have a good time even if you weren’t.

CSS’ bubbly spirit was especially evident when contrasted by the night’s headliner, Ladytron. Both bands at their essence are trying to do the same thing: make you shake your ass. I just don’t get these groups that play dance music, but look like they’re at a funeral while doing it. It just seems as though they take themselves way too seriously and it pilfers any fun out of their songs that might have actually been there in the first place. Maybe that’s their deal? I don’t profess to being any sort of authority on the dance music genre, but to me the casual fan, where CSS conveyed a happy-go-lucky schoolyard kid at play, Ladytron was the uptight and boring martinet shouting recess was over (in a meticulously trimmed coif, a fancy light show and heavy reverb mind you).