"This Is Happening": the third album by LCD Soundsystem

penn station is not an awful place to spend the night if you bring a book

yup, and the first train's at what, 5 a.m.? That's a good plan as long as you don't sleep through the PJX stop. Sunrise at Hamilton is no fun...not that I have ever done something like that before...

That was so fucking good. I thought it would have to sag at some point - maybe during 45:33 - but no, they really do have three hours of awesome material. Also sounded so much better than I'd imagined from the couple of bootlegs I'd heard. Amazing.

ugh man I hope to christ there's a really awesome DVD of this being planned out.

where is Lance Bangs?

i'm happy that i got to see them once esp while i was living in missouri of all places but am still bitter that i didn't get to see them on their last tour -- best live band i've ever seen easy

for fucking real

titus is the only band that rivals them for holy-fuck-how-can-they-be-this-good-wow-they're-in-their-prime-RIGHT-NOW-and-i'm-seeing-them-play awe

On the one hand I'm like so pissed I never got to see then play "Jump Into The Fire" live but otoh I have gotten to see them 3x, once at a sorta-secret show last year at a stupid tiny venue, once with Liquid Liquid, once with Light Asylum, all three times with "Yeah" in the setlist, once w/ "Dance Yrself Clean"; I mean I am p content

yeah i saw them right as the wave was starting to break for 'sound of silver' where they were playing a small stage at the festival but the crowd way outstripped the sidestage size and i was right in front with my jaw just chillin on my shoes

It's nifty bcz I feel like in 20 years being able to say "I saw LCD Soundsystem live" is gonna be like whoa

[doesn't say it]

/braggin2031

#futurebrags might be a good thread maybe maybe not I dunno

Saw the Tuesday show - lots of fun, though after Reggie Watts joined him the "you can't hide - shame on you" part of the running mix, I kept hoping Aziz Ansari would show up to do a Morris Day/Jerome "hold up the mirror and then dance in unison" bit with Murphy during an extended instrumental section. Even if the big fun is planned for MSG, just watching them tear through for 3 hours was awesome enough. 'sucks' (on a very relative scale) that they didn't add the "jump in the fire" cover to the setlist until Wednesday, though.

Yeah now I'm just really really hoping we get at least a good bootleg of the last show.

I saw them 3 times and I too got that feeling of getting to see a great band in their prime. First time there was a 20-minute "Yeah" that just blew my mind. It was so good that it was like...we drove 3 hours to see them and it was worth it just for that. Second time they segued "Yeah" into "Throw" which I had never heard before. Awesome. Third time there was nothing too crazy but they did play "Dance Yrself Clean" and "Home". It's ridiculous how popular they've gotten. Starting the show with "Dance Yrself Clean" was so great because everyone knew the song, everyone knew it was going to explode at some point (like three minutes in), so there was such an incredible tension in the audience (who had been waiting a while for them to come out anyway).

I don't think any moment at any show ever has my heart pounded with so much anticipation as it did during the last "aaaahhh" before the drop in DYC. The song's p dear to me to begin with and live it was just unreal.

i like LCD fine but i don't rly get all the "OMFG WE ARE SEEING THIS BAND IN THEIR PRIME RIGHT FUCKING NOW OMGGGG" hyperbole -- i've seen 'em i think four times over the years, and the best was the first time: they played a 2,500 person venue for some reason, tour for first album, and were only vaguely popular so MAYBE 400-500 people showed up, the emptiest i've ever seen that venue. i think the juan maclean and shit robot opened (both fantastic) and LCD killed it, but were certainly way less polished, more loose & shambolic than their touring machine is bound to be now. i guess the first show was 2003, 04 era. saw 'em a couple times on the sound of silver tour (once at a festival) and it was obvious they were picking up steam as a "legendary" live act, and the shows were fun but much more thought out, like a mini-arena show. and when i saw them late 2010 for the "final" tour (until the reunion in 5 years, amirite) it just seemed so stale and rote; i enjoyed a look back at "yr city's a sucker" and a couple other cuts, but seeing them plod through "someone great" "all my friends" "us and them" and horrid new cuts like "drunk girls" (so terrible on record AND LIVE), it seems like it really is time for them to call it quits.

tl;dr obviously, so i guess my point is that based on my experiences, they've been getting less exciting as a touring act over the years. much preferred when murphy got up there wasted and just fuckin went for it, nothing planned out so carefully. and now they are a well-oiled machine. and i'm not trying to be all "FIRSTIES!!!" or w/e, but it's probably much more thrilling if you didn't see LCD back in the first album era, right?

that's not to mention the first album + early singles is their best work BY FAR, and as their material has gotten less exciting i suppose their setlist has devolved as well. nowadays they'll pull out "daft punk" "tribulations" "movement" "yeah" and SOMETIMES "losing my edge" but those setlists w/ mostly everything from the first album + all early singles & B-sides were killer.

</rant>

So you're saying that you were there before everyone else got hip to them and the old stuff is better.

Well I think most people would probably disagree with you. "Yeah" and "Losing my Edge" are total classic. "Daft Punk" is kind of...okay. Decent single fodder and it works well live because he re-did the groove of it somewhat. "Movement" is incredible live. Otherwise...the SoS and TiH stuff just strikes me as a lot better. "All My Friends", "Home", "Dance Yrself Clean", and "Us v. Them" just kill it.

it's not a matter of "i was there first!!" (for bragging rights)

more like "i have seen this band several times in the past 7 or so years, and they used to be MUCH more entertaining live than they are now... why is everyone losing their shit all of a sudden?"

xp

Because they're breaking up. Did you miss that?

I like the new songs fine (and my fave non-hits are easily on Sound Of Silver) and enjoyed the concert, but the vibe was definitely pretty planned out and looking back, not a Right Here Right Now This Glorious moment thing - usually you don't have a giant wad of papers atop some drums for that. Of course, they were in the middle of a four concert run at one venue, too.

"the vibe was definitely pretty planned out"

i think this is what kinda kills the 2010-11 era LCD live show, for me

If the Talking Heads broke up around Stop Making Sense, I could understand if someone was like "honestly, I'm more glad that I caught them at CBGBS/Remain In Light Tour than that I caught this," but it shouldn't be a shock that people would want to see and be glad they saw Stop Making Sense.

Yeah but otoh the Blonde Ambition tour was probably pretty planned out but also probably pretty awesome to be at.

imo.

like I don't think that "planned out" negates any of the crazy energy/awesome musicians/great songs/etc.

it probably does negate the "crazy energy" if you saw them in a more spontaneous time

serious question: ILXors of NY, did you guys actually see any of these shows? and if you've also seen the 2010-11 LCD farewell tour, which did you find "better" and why? i mean i can't imagine the MSG show will be any better than these!

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/lcd-soundsystem/2004/tribeca-grand-new-york-ny-1bd249e8.html
http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/lcd-soundsystem/2005/bowery-ballroom-new-york-ny-bd249ee.html
http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/lcd-soundsystem/2005/nokia-theatre-times-square-new-york-ny-bd249ea.html

IDK I saw them in 07 (festival-type gig w/ Arcade Fire), 10 (tiny venue/"first show in 3 years" or something), and 11 (planned out, ew!) and they seemed to have crazy energy each time.

ilxor, did you actually see one of the shows people are talking about now?

Murphy's made no bones about wanting to move on (and while I like This Is Happening, it's pretty much More Songs About Eno-Rock And Murphy's General Angst), so the idea that they're less intense than they were previously should be no more surprising than that people are psyched to catch them why they still can.

what exactly is the draw for that? I mean I like the idea of a band going onstage and not knowing what songs they'll do, feeling the crowd out and all that, but LCD have like 40 songs, many of them quite similar. What's the appeal of them being "spontaneous"?

i mean sure, the farewell shows are a grand statement/farewell/nostalgia fest/masturbatory & overlong setlist/"cementing the status of LCD at the top of the 2000s canon" gesture, but i can't imagine who caught the band in 2003-05 actually ENJOYING these shows more than one of those early, tossed-off sets when the band was hungry, urgent and far more unhinged

"Better" is objective; it's spectacle vs. intimacy. I mean, I am glad I saw them when they were playing songs like "All My Friends" and "Dance Yrself Clean" and stuff. Also, there's a difference between seeing a band that's new and pretty good and being blown away vs. seeing a band you're really familiar with and adore and being blown away and I definitely, definitely savor the latter much more.

ilxor, did you actually see one of the shows people are talking about now?

i have not seen any of the Terminal 5 shows, no

i did see LCD at their most recent stop in Austin on the current tour, late 2010 i think?

xxp jesus are you really that incapable of grasping the idea that some people have different priorities and interest and desires than you?

this is the show i saw, July 2010. total snoozefest compared to LCD five years earlier. wasted my $$, wish i'd have stayed home, no challops.

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/lcd-soundsystem/2010/stubbs-bar-b-q-austin-tx-2bd42cea.html

xxp jesus are you really that incapable of grasping the idea that some people have different priorities and interest and desires than you?

no, not incapable. i see, clearly, that people have different interests and opinions. i am asking WHY this is the case. especially for ppl that caught LCD before the big farewell hoopla all got started.

I will note that I might have been non-plussed if they'd played that setlist instead of the three-hour-plus discography-spanning monster they did at Terminal 5

xp because they have better songs now and play tighter as a band??

was there any 'last tour' specific merch? any I WAS THERE t-shirts?

they are playing a THREE HOUR set now, can they really not find time for anything from the back half of the debut album ("never as tired" "on repeat" "thrills" "disco infiltrator" "great release") or "beat connection" "give it up" "tired" "yr citys a sucker" i mean come onnnnn

"give it up" is a fuckin monster live, instead we get to sing along to "i can change" and "ny i love you but..."? god please spare me

I was just kidding around b/c ilxor's one post read a little like an early LCD song itself.

and they've gone from quite awesome early cover songs (siouxsie "slowdive"!!!) to doing a mash-up of "ny i love you" + jay-z "empire state of mind" loooool. like, people think this is a good thing?

but i was there

i was there when LCD Soundsystem played Siouxsie and the Banshees covers and early B-sides in 2005

:(

brotherlovesdub lol yes

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2011/03/lcd_soundsystem_40.html

okay im done being a negative nancy, you guys enjoy

honestly i'd probably buy a Terminal 5 ticket if i lived in NY, anyway, so fuck knows what im saying

NANCY WHANG SOLO LP NOW PLZ.

and they've gone from quite awesome early cover songs (siouxsie "slowdive"!!!) to doing a mash-up of "ny i love you" + jay-z "empire state of mind" loooool. like, people think this is a good thing?

yeah that mashup sucks, but besides that what? "Throw" was awesome. The thing is that the back half of their debut album is not really considered by many people to be as good as their later stuff. Just saying. "I Can Change" is a lot better than most the songs you mentioned

They sucked when I saw them open for Daft Punk at Wireless Festival 2007. Like, a really bad performance. And I'll never get to see them again, ever.

Okay you realize they have FIVE album-length releases worth of material, right (first album, second disc of singles, sound of silver, 45:33, this is happening)?