LCD Soundsystem

When sub-human touts are palming ten pound tickets off for thirty-five quid outside a venue then it’s natural to have stellar expectations of what’s happening inside.

On a wet winter’s evening in a shoe box venue, everyone expects. The audience stands in a tight swell waiting to be challenged, awaiting an expensive explosion of Tuesday evening punk-funk fun and frolics. LCD Soundsystem stroll on stage, five figures headed by vocalist and producer James Murphy and his associate in sonics Tim Goldsworthy. Add in a bassist, drummer and keyboardist - all unassuming, but of such composure that DiS could sense they were about to give our skint asses some slabs of starship funk.

Expectancy was not paid in vain. No showmanship greetings or unnecessary pullava, just a sudden drop-down into deep motorik, mighty electro shudders that sent the audience into immediate exuberance. Limbs danced and popped, bodies jumped about and bobbed. Everyone having easy galactic fun all round. Wallflowers seemed out of fashion. Murphy, dressed in a black wolverine t-shirt, stood fixed to the mike, eyes closed, screaming to the dark cellars in his post-punk soul. Metal on metal, the sounds of the stars and rust. He really does look sincere, intense and alive with depth and fury when he sings. Combine that with the widescreen sonics and electro garage of the band and LCD are a highly compelling live experience. Imagine Sonic Youth, The Prodigy and the Happy Mondays locked inside a disco on the far boundaries of outer space and you’re close.

The first stand-out party track was recent single ‘Daft Punk Is Playing At My House’, when the crowd upped the level in vocal appreciation and dance moves. Hailing from a small American town and growing up with a fascination with The Fall, you sensed that this was a significant event for James Murphy. He’s always credited Mancunian bands as having a huge influence on his musical style; and given such a setting of rapturous feedback, he wasn’t ever gonna misfire this one. Another particular highlight was the now-infamous ‘Losing My Edge’. A call written for the Nathan Barley within us all, about the protagonist witnessing all the right-on musical moments in rock & roll history. Velvets in NYC, Can in Cologne; he was there apparently. The bontempi synth on the record turns into a swaggering bass monster when played live, and again the crowd show their energetic approval, the capacity going wild and all rocking to the New York/Manchester crossover beat. And those beats, that squalling feedback, those funky analogue rhythms and eerie post-punk atmosphere just kept rolling and rolling full-blast from the booming speakers throughout each tune. It was loud, it was rammed, it was warm inside. Final track ‘Yeah’ is likely to be the most sardonic, pissed off tune in dance music history. It’s electro garage funk that can make you laugh, repetitive yet it’s delivered with gusto and feeling from Mr Murphy. Again always fixed to the mike, eyes closed, his intense face showing us those defined, edgy textures within his painfully hip heart. He means it and it shows. The band mean it too. This was music that’s taken from the past, but had respect for the future, and certainly LCD Soundsystem and Mr Murphy’s production style are shaping the present times. I was there in 2005. . .