LCD Soundsystem (Brixton Academy, 23/10/07)

James Murphy isn’t the type to faff about. The LCD Soundsystem live show isn’t an orgy of razzmatazz and special effects; indeed, apart from your standard coloured spotlights and the lightbulb strips adorning the back of the stage, there’s no real visual aspect at all. It’s not a show that centres inexorably around its frontman either; Murphy unostentatiously dances his way a round the stage and acts the conductor to his band, but otherwise cuts a surprisingly anonymous figure. LCD:SS is purely about the music, and on those terms it delivered perfectly.

A set geared heavily towards critically-acclaimed sophomore LP Sound of Silver, Murphy and his impressively tight musical unit provide 90 minutes of relentless, wonderfully vibrant indie-disco bursting from the seems with addictive basslines, Stax-esque funk-guitar, mesmerising drumming and endlessly repeated but eminently memorable lyrics. In line with their no-nonsense policy, they open with the monstrous, cowbell-intensive Us Vs. Them, getting the audience utterly on side from the get-go. By the time we got to a brilliant North American Scum, Brixton Academy was a sea of flailing bodies being moshed about the venue like oversized, sweat-drenched pinballs. All Our Friends was a jangly delight, and Yeah! lived up to its reputation as a live classic, veering from LCD’s standard pumped-up electronica to outright rock territory. If Someone Great was a conspicuous disappointment, oddly lacking spark, then closer New York I Love You more than made up for it, the new album’s sole ballad inspiring an unusual hybrid of lighter-waving and crowd-surfing amongst some of the more over-excitable fans (which admittedly, by that stage, was half the audience).



One could complain that the songs didn’t vary overmuch from their recorded incarnations, but with LCD’s oeuvre very geared towards a “get up and dance” mentality, they’re intrinsically arranged to work well in a live setting. What sometimes seems overlong and repetitive on record finds its natural home in a room full of 4000 dancing maniacs; as good as their albums are, LCD Soundsystem are truly a band meant to be experienced in the flesh. You won’t walk away gabbling about Murphy's peerless audience interaction, or the jaw-dropping pyrotechnics (mainly because you’ll be too knackered to move of your own volition) but you'll have had way too much fun to care.