GIG REVIEW: LCD Soundsystem @ Brixton Academy, London

On Saturday the 24th of April, I got to see, the brilliant, LCD Soundsystem. I was literally astounded. Although I got there later than planned, missing the oft-touted Yacht’s opening slot, I had a brilliant time. It was undoubtedly the perfect venue, Brixton Academy’s sloped standing area coupled with possibly the best atmosphere of any indoor gig I’ve been meant that I really enjoyed it and LCD Soundsystem filled the room with every song. Every single person around me in the crowd was dancing along, it was basically like being in an amazing nightclub with a bodacious DJ. But, unlike being in a club, Murphy and co had a light show that just blew me away, the immensely complicated set up on stage, the spotlights and the disco glitter ball were all impressive. I also realised the true popularity of James Murphy, the amount of old hipsters there was quite surprising, even more so the amount that had been determined to stand at the front.

The set was jam-packed with all killer songs, seemingly cherry picking the most banging tunes from each album, it was like everyone was a collective as the crowd danced along, to the irresistible beats. After the opening song which I think was off the new album, yet cannot recall it, and a mishmash melody it went into “Daft Punk Is Playing In My House” and the crowd, understandably, went absolutely mad. It was definitely setting the mood for the rest of the gig, and pushed the crowd past reserved head nods, probably being their most famous song, it was a given that they would play it at some point. There was also “Yeah” (Crass or Pretentious version I’m not sure aha), “Drunk Girls” and “I Can Change” as other memorable highlights. Every song, even those from the new album were inciting cheers and singing along, showing how much it has spread already across the internet, as well as the website streaming it right now.

When they played my favourite song of all time, “All My Friends” I was so happy, and although it sounded a lot more like the Franz Ferdinand version, which I admittedly prefer, it was just a brilliant version, perfect to see people singing the “You spend the first five years….” part to each other and the reaction of the song showing its resonance with the majority of people in the crowd. The encore was probably the most memorable, opening with a lovely rendition of “Someone Great” and ending with the most rocking version of “New York I Love You…” that will (most likely) never be committed to record, being rather distinctively different from the album version. What made it even better was the hundreds of balloons that were released into the crowd, just as the song began to lull, and then come crashing into it again, as evidenced in this video;
[Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H-mhOSuS2w]
Suffice to say, it looked alot better being underneath those balloons. Anyway, to conclude, catching LCD Soundsystem live was absolutely fantastic night and I would recommend to everyone, especially as this tour, with the new final album maybe the last. Get to a show anyway you can!

LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk Is Playing At My House

Nathan