In preparation, I spent all day yesterday listening to the Spotify playlist called "This is: LCD Soundsystem" to see if I could get on board and ready to party down. I talked to a friend who went to the full show at the Circuit of the Americas on Halloween night, and he said it was amazing. I am ready to be amazed, dammit! But I noticed something funny about it, in listening to the music all day, I kept having a thought bubble up in my mind that I needed to switch the music to something better, but then I'd stubbornly keep going so that I could prepare for the night. Not a ringing endorsement by my subconscious. I was also texting with a friend about the show, and after the full day of listening, I had a pretty clear thought about the music overall. He asked if I had made any progress on learning to appreciate the LCD, and I responded "sort of. I can kind of dig it, but it's all a little exhausting to listen to after a while. You can only hear so much synthesizer wood block noise before you start to freak out. But several of these songs are great. I just think they need to be separated by some other music and not heard all at once." This friend, who likes LCD, said that he agreed completely. I am therefore vindicated and the smartest person alive.
So anyway, the show. Coolest thing to me about it was the stage setup. It looked like the evil lair of a Bond villain, with stacks and stacks of synths and and amps and music machines and weird consoles with functions I couldn't determine. There were about eight people up on stage, bopping things with drumsticks and poking buttons and making sounds. Which was very interesting, because I figured that this was going to be like most electronic shows where the singer just hits "Go" on his laptop and then sings along. The bass player was groovy, the guitarist could jam, the drummer was very solid, and then the computer technicians were doing a bang up job of whatever they were doing - especially hitting the cowbell. James Murphy was also an inspired cowbell hitter, I honestly figured that those would be a synth effect, but he honestly was very good at striking out quick rhythms on that cowbell.
The music itself just never really got to me. He didn't play the hits - no "Dance Yrself Clean," no "North American Scum," no "Daft Punk is Playing at My House" - except for "All My Friends." Which meant that the crowd really never sang along except for "All My Friends" and "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down." It seemed like most of the set were the new songs, and while the crowd gamely grooved along to it, they were definitely more energized when they knew the songs. I'd love to say that I really enjoyed the show, but this was the first ACL taping I've ever done where I was hoping it would end. They normally end between 9 and 9:30, but he just kept going past 9:30 and it was getting on my nerves. I know, poor me, I had to go listen to a really innovative artist jam out for almost 2 hours. If I had to name the best two tracks I remember, they would be "I Can Change" and "You Wanted a Hit" (and that second one mainly because of the lyrics which are witty). But I don't think I have much reason to listen to LCD ever again.
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