Live Review: LCD Soundsystem, Manchester Academy

Posted on 4 May 2010
By Barry Blackmore
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Enjoying a pre-performance ciggie in what could only be described as a 1950’s gulag holding pen, someone quips: “…with all these spot lights and metal fences, it feels like one false move and I’ll be shot”. Luckily the only ‘execution’ to take place would be a performance from LCD Soundsystem of herculean proportions.



Employing the age old staggered amble onto stage James Murphy finally joined his well drilled ensemble to tumultuous applause, looking every inch the Brian Wilson for the electro generation.

Things got off to a steady, kinetic, percussive, start with Sound Of Silver cuts Us Vs Them and Get Innocuous! It was at track three that we got the first full on, kicking, outbreak of head nodding and rump shaking with a version of Daft Punk Is Playing In My House that began louche but crescendoed into a volcano of shuddering bass and screams.

Cooling things down for a track or so with new single Drunk girls, the performance shifts into the stratosphere, and beyond already high expectations. Sensing a sea change in mood LCD really turned the cusser up, pushing the urgency and earnestness of each song to wall melting intensity.

Set stand outs include All My Friends – the mental/aural image of a mass of ecstatic kids bellowing the refrain “If I can see all my friends tonight” will be hard to erase – as well as ironic ode to hipsterism Losing My Edge. Building exponentially, with playing so tight you couldn’t slide a beer sodden rizzla between the various sections, culminating in a dizzying explosion of fuzz, bass and disco ball refracted lasers, until grinning like Cheshire cats, the audience took in the languid pleasure of closer New York I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down.

Apparently Mr Murphy is planning on bringing a curtain down on the LCD ‘franchise’, and on this evidence each song was played as if it was their last ever. Go out and catch ‘em at the festivals whilst you still can, or your ears won’t ever forgive you.

Official: http://lcdsoundsystem.com

Myspace: http://myspace.com/lcdsoundsystem