LCD Soundsystem at the El Rey Theatre

One of the casualities of going to Las Vegas a few months ago to see Interpol and Tool was that I missed Coachella. My friends kept talking about LCD Soundsytem as one of the highlights from Coachella. James Murphy and his fellow bandmates had the tent rocking and dancing along. I guess everyone else heard about the buzz of LCD Soundsystem because they sold out three nights at the El Rey Theatre.



Planning to Rock opened the show and sounded familar to me for some reason. It came back to me because I remembered that she was supposed to open for the Knife back in 2006 but cancelled at the last minute. Planning to Rock is Janine Rostron as a one woman show that incorporates synth basslines. electronic programming, and visuals into her performance. She reminded me of a mixture of Eminem, Peaches, Jem and Bjork. Most of the crowd seemed bewildered by the various imagery and performance antics.






In case you haven't heard of LCD Soundsystem, they play a combination of dance funk punk in an electronic context. James Murphy (Vocals) is one half of the DFA(Death From Above) production team that has had their trademark stamp on a few albums including Rapture's "Echoes". I had never seen LCD Soundsystem live before and heard that they brought the energy live on stage. This was confirmed as James Murphy gave a compelling performance singing in his microphone with the audience in front of the stage dancing along in the palm of his hand. I was surprised to discover that he mentioned that he received a Vitamin B-12(Cyanocobalamin) injection earlier in the day since he was feeling under the weather. I hope this would not affect his next two sold out nights. "Us V Them" was a solid opening track that got the crowd worked into a dance frenzy that would hardly let up until they hit "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down". My favorite tracks were "Movement","Tribulations", and "North American Scum". Most of the tracks were extended out a bit compared to the album version. I did notice James tell the drummer to slow it up a few times because he was propelling the beat a bit too hard. Overall, a high energy show that confirmed my friends sentiments.