Ladytron
The British electronica band talks bathroom doors and rock 'n' roll ice cream at the Barking Crab
It's a Monday afternoon, and three-fourths of the electronic-rock group Ladytron is finishing lunch at the nearly empty Barking Crab. Helen Marnie, Mira Aroyo, and Daniel Hunt are seated around a small table by a window overlooking the marina while the sound system pumps out classic rock and '80s metal. The sound of screechy Van Halen guitars fills the restaurant, and David Lee Roth is singing "Panama . . . Panama-ha!"
Keyboardist/guitarist Hunt nurses a tall glass of Sankaty Light, brewed on Nantucket, and picks at the remnants of a plate of fish and French fries. "It's all right. It's not the same as the fish and chips back home," he says in a thick British accent. Marnie, the lead singer, is wearing huge sunglasses and sipping a flute of champagne. Aroyo, who plays keyboards and sings - and was a postgraduate geneticist in the University of Oxford's biochemistry department - had just eaten some oysters. The fourth member of the group, keyboard player Reuben Wu, is MIA.
In a few hours Ladytron would be taking the stage for a sold-out show at the Paradise Rock Club, the British group's last stop on the US leg of its North American tour. The bandmates have been on the road for weeks, touring extensively in support of their new album, "Velocifero." They've been living out of a big shiny tour bus with leather seats, mirrored ceilings, and rooms separated by "Star Trek"-style doors that slide open and shut with the push of a button.
"It's really nice," says Hunt. "It's the nicest bus we've had."
But the bathroom door slides a little bit too slowly, says Aroyo. "At the beginning, it was annoying because it was really slow. Sometimes you're like 'Ah, just let me go to the toilet, I'm dying!' . . . and you have to wait for it to close, as well."
"Now we don't bother closing the door at all," Hunt says, laughing. "We're a lot more comfortable with each other."
When Cheap Trick's 1978 hit "Surrender" starts playing over the restaurant's sound system, Hunt pauses. "Wow," he says, taking a sip of his beer. "What a great song."
Aroyo then tells him about her and Marnie's recent visit to Emack & Bolio's on State Street, near the New England Aquarium, which sells a variety of rock n' roll-inspired ice cream flavors.
"We went to get ice cream from this place on the harbor earlier on, and they had, like, a Cheap Trick ice cream," she says, in a soft Bulgarian accent.
"Really?" says Hunt.
"Yeah," says Aroyo.
"Were they from here as well? Cheap Trick, from Boston?" Hunt asks.
"Maybe they are," says Aroyo.
"The Cars are from Boston," says Hunt.
Aroyo continues the list: "The Pixies, the Modern Lovers, Aerosmith . . ."
Marnie has her own theory: "I think it was just people who've gone into that shop, because there was a Deep Purple ice cream," she says.
I ask them about the surreal music video for their 2005 single "Destroy Everything You Touch." It takes place on what appears to be a snow-covered mountain range. Each member of the band embodies a mountain, Mount Rushmore style, and their faces are covered with snow.
"It was quite hard work, that video," Marnie says in a soft Scottish accent. "The snow was made from these fine bits of paper. We were covered in it, and they were spraying it in our face. We had to try not to breathe too much."
Aroyo nods and says, "Our ears, our noses were full of paper."
". . . and we look around, see the crew, and they're all wearing masks," says Hunt.
"I don't know how safe that was," says Marnie.
"And we had to hold our heads up," says Aroyo.
Marnie laughs and then re-enacts the scenario by tilting her head way back, over the side of the chair. It doesn't look like a very comfortable position.
"I was in the lowest mountain," says Marnie, staring up at the restaurant's ceiling, "so I had to get really low and stay still and my neck was in this position . . . for how many hours?"
"Hours, hours," says Hunt.
Marnie says, "I couldn't move my neck after it."
They ended up shooting the video in one day, between shows. It took nearly 22 hours.
"These things are not without sacrifices," Hunt says with a smirk. "It was a good end result."
After the Paradise show, Ladytron was heading north to Canada and then back across the pond to play some European festivals. They may come back to Boston early next year, Hunt says, in January or February.
I offer them a ride back to their bus, which is parked in front of the Paradise. Marnie and Aroyo climb into the back seat of my 2004
Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com.
