Photo by Ken Lavey via Brooklyn Vegan
LCD Soundsystem made their first ever appearance in New Jersey at Wellmont Theater and as expected, they killed it. It's surprising it took so long, being that lead singer, producer and mastermind James Murphy is originally from the garden state. I'm blaming
Jersey Shore for keeping him out.
Anyways, the night got off to a slighty slow start with
Sleigh Bells opening. The two piece are trying to produce the sound of a five piece but end up sounding like the the time during your sophomore year of high school when your friend put sub-woofers in his stationwagon and thought the only proper way to use them was at full blast. Everything in their live show is pre-recorded except for some of Alexis Krauss's vocal and Derek Miller's guitar lines. Both of these two instruments are completely dwarfed by the rap/metal drum machine. It was a big stage for these two cover and they didn't quite fill it.
But why focus on the negative when the positive is oh-so-positive? Murphy and his associates took the stage, opening with "Dance Yrself Clean," the slow building opener from their most recent album. A lone spotlight was situated on Murphy until the until the chorus came in, triggering about 100 backing lights and the entire crowd's jumping reflex.
From there the band continued to go run through their hits, old and new. It felt like everytime that I would think to myself "hey, it'd be cool if they played (insert sweet song) next," that song would come on next. "All My Friends" inspired some hipsters to test the waters of crowd surfing, and "Movement" inspired me to (accidentally) start moshing, which wasn't very well-received. I appologized and all was forgiven as Murphy began to sing the opening lines of "Yeah."
"Losing My Edge" was the highlight of the encore. Murphy used the song to remind us all that he's in fact 40 years old. It also inspired him to appologize mid-song for when he was a bouncer and most likely denied a lot of our fake IDs. I forgive him.
Overall, LCD put on a fantastic show. I've heard the legends, but this was my first time getting to experience it for myself. Murphy and the rest of the band are professional musicians and exceptional entertainers. Well worth the NJ Transit ride. -
brendan mehan
Set List - 9/23/10 - Wellmont Theater
1. Dance Yrself Clean
2. Drunk Girls
3. Get Innocuous
4. Tribulations
5. All My Friends
6. I Can Change
7. Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
8. Yr City's A Sucker
9. You Wanted A Hit
10. Movement
11. Yeah
Encore:
12. Someone Great
13. Losing My Edge
14. Home
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Official Website
LCD Soundsystem on Myspace 