Latest news with #LCDSoundsystem
Telegraph
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Giddy joy from dance pioneers LCD Soundsystem
Rather than play a one-off festival or two nights at the 20,000-capacity O2 Arena, New York dance music pioneers LCD Soundsystem have taken a different approach to entertaining their UK fans this summer: an eight-night residency at the relatively intimate 5,000-capacity Brixton Academy in south London. The numbers work out the same: eight Brixtons equal two O2s or one muddy field. And the cosy setting worked a treat (as it should have done with the cheapest tickets costing upwards of £60). This was a broiling two-hour set of scrupulously constructed and life-affirming music. The band have always felt like a cult concern, even when they're playing Glastonbury 's Pyramid stage or Victoria Park's All Points East festival (both of which they did last year). The 18 indie-synth anthems that they played here provoked a giddy sense of up-close-and-personal joy among the raving faithful, who ranged from middle-aged down to Gen Z (with a fair few of the former's teenage offspring brought along for the ride). Led by record label boss and producer James Murphy, LCD Soundsystem and their stage set-up were a sight to behold. Eight musicians, including Hot Chip's wonderfully frenzied Al Doyle on guitar, were surrounded by a cornucopia of vintage equipment – consoles, percussion, synths, glockenspiels and speakers. It looked like the madcap secret lair of sonic pioneers Bob Moog and Jim Marshall. Songs like Get Innocuous, Dance Yrself Clean and Someone Great are built on feet-shuffling polyrhythms and addictive hooks, and here – as with every track – they incrementally and almost imperceptibly came to the boil, like the proverbial frog in the pan, until Brixton erupted. Talking of boiling, it was a sweatbox in there. 'Wear shorts!' a friend said before. I should have listened. Murphy has said he formed LCD in 2002 as 'kind of a lark'. Genre-agnostic, they rose to prominence as Napster culture blew apart music's silos, allowing them to combine punk and indie with dance music and bone-dry lyrics, just as New York's music scene was itself exploding with bands like The Strokes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Debut single Losing My Edge – sadly not played here – was about the transience of pick 'n' mix culture (or it was a dig at scenesters, still not sure). We got flashes of these influences here – Kraftwerk's The Model segued into a stunning I Can Change, while punky Movement could have come out of CBGB in 1976. This fantastic gig was only let down by some surprise omissions (All I Want, Daft Punk Is Playing at My House) and sound that wasn't always as crystal clear as this music demanded. But as final track All My Friends, a song built around a repetitive piano motif, reached its blistering crescendo, none of this mattered. It was electrifying.
South Wales Guardian
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- South Wales Guardian
LCD Soundsystem honour Brian Wilson and Sly Stone at residency's opening night
The New York group danced on to the stage to the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations, followed by deadpan leader James Murphy, who was dressed in a Brat green luminous T-shirt, before bursting into opener You Wanted A Hit from 2010's This Is Happening album. The track was followed by Tribulations from their 2005 self-titled debut album, which provoked mass dancing across the close to sell-out crowd, with Murphy attending to his trademark tinkering with amps and giving instructions Mark E Smith style. Fans were treated to a rendition of Yr City's A Sucker, from the band's first album, with Murphy informing the audience 'your city's a sucker, my city's a creep'. A post shared by LCD Soundsystem (@lcdsoundsystem) At the track's end, the 55-year-old singer told the audience: 'We played here a few years ago and we really liked it, and now we're back, and we really appreciate that you came to see us, we don't take it for granted.' The band began to cover Kraftwerk's The Model, before transforming it into I Can Change, prompting the first mass singalong of the night, while Time To Get Away and Get Innocuous! from Grammy-nominated second album Sound Of Silver (2007) went down a storm with the crowd. LCD Soundsystem exited the stage for an intermission to Sly And The Family Stone's Everyday People, paying tribute after Stone died on Monday aged 82. They returned with 2007 single North American Scum. The track, which is about the band being mistaken for an English group by fans due to their popularity in the country, was the highlight of the evening, with the crowd drowning out keyboard player Nancy Whang's cheerleader backing vocals with their own. Murphy later added: 'This is the first city we played in, somehow it was 23 years ago, and some of you weren't even born.' The band's most recent singles, New Body Rhumba and X-Ray Eyes, released in 2022 and 2024 respectively, got an airing before Murphy said of the upcoming run of dates: 'This is the first of many of these, we like to play in rooms that have some character and some love in. 'Thank you all for being excellent to us.' The band then hit the crowd with a triple whammy of fan favourites in Dance Yrself Clean, New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down, and All My Friends, which saw the venue erupt with dancing. They may not have been the most popular band during the 2000s indie explosion, but as they now see their influence in upcoming artists such as The Dare and Fcukers, along with a young crowd at Thursday's gig, LCD Soundsystem may be the scene's most influential and remembered. The band played a similar residency in June 2022, and they will return to the stage on Friday, before further performances on June 14, 15, 19, 20, 21 and 22.
Wales Online
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
LCD Soundsystem honour Brian Wilson and Sly Stone at residency's opening night
LCD Soundsystem honour Brian Wilson and Sly Stone at residency's opening night The New York group danced on to the stage to the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations LCD Soundsystem (Image: Daily Record ) LCD Soundsystem have paid tribute to Brian Wilson and Sly Stone at the opening night of their eight-date residency at London's Brixton Academy. The New York group danced on to the stage to the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations, followed by deadpan leader James Murphy, who was dressed in a Brat green luminous T-shirt, before bursting into opener You Wanted A Hit from 2010's This Is Happening album. The track was followed by Tribulations from their 2005 self-titled debut album, which provoked mass dancing across the close to sell-out crowd, with Murphy attending to his trademark tinkering with amps and giving instructions Mark E Smith style. Fans were treated to a rendition of Yr City's A Sucker, from the band's first album, with Murphy informing the audience "your city's a sucker, my city's a creep". At the track's end, the 55-year-old singer told the audience: "We played here a few years ago and we really liked it, and now we're back, and we really appreciate that you came to see us, we don't take it for granted." The band began to cover Kraftwerk's The Model, before transforming it into I Can Change, prompting the first mass singalong of the night, while Time To Get Away and Get Innocuous! from Grammy-nominated second album Sound Of Silver (2007) went down a storm with the crowd. Article continues below LCD Soundsystem exited the stage for an intermission to Sly And The Family Stone's Everyday People, paying tribute after Stone died on Monday aged 82. They returned with 2007 single North American Scum. The track, which is about the band being mistaken for an English group by fans due to their popularity in the country, was the highlight of the evening, with the crowd drowning out keyboard player Nancy Whang's cheerleader backing vocals with their own. Murphy later added: "This is the first city we played in, somehow it was 23 years ago, and some of you weren't even born." The band's most recent singles, New Body Rhumba and X-Ray Eyes, released in 2022 and 2024 respectively, got an airing before Murphy said of the upcoming run of dates: "This is the first of many of these, we like to play in rooms that have some character and some love in. "Thank you all for being excellent to us." The band then hit the crowd with a triple whammy of fan favourites in Dance Yrself Clean, New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down, and All My Friends, which saw the venue erupt with dancing. Article continues below They may not have been the most popular band during the 2000s indie explosion, but as they now see their influence in upcoming artists such as The Dare and Fcukers, along with a young crowd at Thursday's gig, LCD Soundsystem may be the scene's most influential and remembered. The band played a similar residency in June 2022, and they will return to the stage on Friday, before further performances on June 14, 15, 19, 20, 21 and 22.
Evening Standard
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Evening Standard
LCD Soundsystem at Brixton Academy: 'beg, borrow or steal for a ticket'
The truth is, a little intimacy suits LCD Soundsystem. Blame it on his background in hardcore punk, or the road to Damascus-style conversion to techno he enjoyed in his late 20s, but the 55-year-old frontman's most frenetic, sweat-soaked songwriting really thrives in conditions like these. The fevered electro-punk of early single Movement was a case in point, with last night's rabid rendition provoking a circle pit. Similarly, it was a thrill to finally witness the scuzzy strut of 2024-track X-Ray Eyes in all its whites-of-their-eyes fervour, while the colossal drop in Dance Yrself Clean felt even more impactful unleashed in a smaller space.
Rhyl Journal
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Rhyl Journal
LCD Soundsystem honour Brian Wilson and Sly Stone at residency's opening night
The New York group danced on to the stage to the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations, followed by deadpan leader James Murphy, who was dressed in a Brat green luminous T-shirt, before bursting into opener You Wanted A Hit from 2010's This Is Happening album. The track was followed by Tribulations from their 2005 self-titled debut album, which provoked mass dancing across the close to sell-out crowd, with Murphy attending to his trademark tinkering with amps and giving instructions Mark E Smith style. Fans were treated to a rendition of Yr City's A Sucker, from the band's first album, with Murphy informing the audience 'your city's a sucker, my city's a creep'. A post shared by LCD Soundsystem (@lcdsoundsystem) At the track's end, the 55-year-old singer told the audience: 'We played here a few years ago and we really liked it, and now we're back, and we really appreciate that you came to see us, we don't take it for granted.' The band began to cover Kraftwerk's The Model, before transforming it into I Can Change, prompting the first mass singalong of the night, while Time To Get Away and Get Innocuous! from Grammy-nominated second album Sound Of Silver (2007) went down a storm with the crowd. LCD Soundsystem exited the stage for an intermission to Sly And The Family Stone's Everyday People, paying tribute after Stone died on Monday aged 82. They returned with 2007 single North American Scum. The track, which is about the band being mistaken for an English group by fans due to their popularity in the country, was the highlight of the evening, with the crowd drowning out keyboard player Nancy Whang's cheerleader backing vocals with their own. Murphy later added: 'This is the first city we played in, somehow it was 23 years ago, and some of you weren't even born.' The band's most recent singles, New Body Rhumba and X-Ray Eyes, released in 2022 and 2024 respectively, got an airing before Murphy said of the upcoming run of dates: 'This is the first of many of these, we like to play in rooms that have some character and some love in. 'Thank you all for being excellent to us.' The band then hit the crowd with a triple whammy of fan favourites in Dance Yrself Clean, New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down, and All My Friends, which saw the venue erupt with dancing. They may not have been the most popular band during the 2000s indie explosion, but as they now see their influence in upcoming artists such as The Dare and Fcukers, along with a young crowd at Thursday's gig, LCD Soundsystem may be the scene's most influential and remembered. The band played a similar residency in June 2022, and they will return to the stage on Friday, before further performances on June 14, 15, 19, 20, 21 and 22.
