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.
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5 hours ago
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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.
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I remember the Christmas after my mother's death in 1989 when I was 15, I purchased the best-of collection from Asda, interested to see what I would hear. It had the hits, of course, but also a few of the deeper cuts from Pet Sounds and onwards. To say this changed my life is an understatement – Brian's music, harmonies and subject matters struck an incredible chord in me. It did exactly what he existed for, bringing comfort to a heart and soul that needs it. I've been a fan ever since – I saw him at the Royal Festival Hall on his first Pet Sounds tour, watched him perform Smile in utter disbelief and wonder in Liverpool, while finally introducing his amazing show to my beautiful wife at the Summer Pops in Liverpool. Quite simply the greatest musician to ever live, in my opinion. Stephen Woodward, 50, Liverpool I first heard California Girls when I was 10 years old. I yearned to be that tanned girl with the bleached blond hair. However, I lived in Burnley, a northern mill town with grey skies and a surfeit of rain! Nonetheless, the Beach Boys' music transported me to those white sandy beaches, fringed with palm trees and lapped by the Pacific waves. As I got older, the music of Brian Wilson evolved, too. Those exquisite harmonies and lyrics continued to move and enthral me. He was a musical genius and his music still manages to evoke in me every human emotion possible. Catherine, Leeds It was 1988 at the Savoy Hotel, London, when I had my brief but indelible encounter with the Beach Boy myth and legend. I was in my formative years as a portrait photographer, and Brian Wilson was being revealed to the press by his doctor and manager, Eugene Landy. Stepping out of the lift on to the top floor, I was greeted by the ethereal melodies of a piano drifting through the corridor – Brian was composing in his penthouse suite. His two assistants greeted me with smiles. I set up my lighting and asked Brian to sit – he looked deeply into the lens and froze. After just three frames, the assistants intervened, politely informing me the session was over. Before I left, the assistants insisted on photographing me alongside him. Two polaroids were required – one for litigation purposes and another as a personal keepsake. For the first one, I played my best poker face. For the second, the memento, I decided to playfully raise an eyebrow. I snatched the Polaroid before the ink was dry, bid them all adieu and beat a hasty exit. As the image developed, two figures surfaced from the darkness – Brian and me, shoulder-to-shoulder, both with raised eyebrows! To me, in that moment of lucidity, Brian was gentle and respectful. That's how I remember my encounter with the legend. Gavin Evans, photographer, Berlin I grew up in Corby in the 90s and felt about as far away as possible from the Beach Boys' music. I think that's precisely why I fell in love with it. It felt transportive. I had the chance to see Brian Wilson perform Pet Sounds in Barcelona in 2016, which felt close to a perfect moment, the kind of thing I'd dreamed of as a child. When my first child was born 18 months ago, Pet Sounds was the first music I ever played for her. Jack Roe, writer and photographer, Liverpool I cannot help agreeing that Brian was the Mozart of the US and in spite of all plaudits he remains vastly underrated. If I play At My Piano for Swiss friends who are probably far less aware of the Beach Boys, they all love the beautiful melodies even without the affectionate and tender lyrics. The man was gentleness and love personified. Most people seem unaware of his later work, some of which definitely rivals his finest Pet Sounds moments for its amazing harmonies, arrangements, tender poetic lyrics and haunting melody. He was courageous over a testing lifetime and leaves a wonderful musical legacy. Kingsley Flint, 76, retired, Cossonay, Switzerland Musical composition isn't an exact science: most of us could shove a few chords together to make verses and a chorus, put it in a 4/4 time signature and voila! There's the basis of a pop song. But carrying that series of chord progressions to a higher form, and communicating feeling that touches almost all human souls who hear it, is what Brian Wilson did. Through his music, Brian invited us to grow up with him, and we did. Eamon McCrisken, 58, language coach, Spain I never met him but he did phone me up in 2005 after I donated to a charity appeal for the tsunami where he promised to ring everyone who donated a certain amount. One day, my wife and I were eating and let the phone go to the answering machine when it rang. I've never moved as quick as when I heard his unmistakable voice saying: 'Hi James, this is Brian Wilson calling from California.' Luckily I caught him before he hung up and got to tell him how much his music meant to me. I'll treasure that call forever. James Ellaby, 44, senior content writer, Manchester As a teen, I thought the Beach Boys were a bit naff. Later in life, having grown up a fair bit, I bought Pet Sounds and a greatest hits compilation on a whim, and was floored on first listen by how Brian captured and blended the essential dichotomy of life: beauty and ugliness, happiness and sadness, optimism and pessimism, ennui and joy. His music made me smile and cry, sometimes simultaneously, in a way that no music had before. Now, I feel a hole in my heart knowing that Brian is gone and that the world has lost a musical oracle, and I wonder: can anyone ever make us feel these things again? Lachlan Walter, 46, writer, Melbourne, Australia Since I was about 10, I have loved the music of the Beach Boys. 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I invented a spurious excuse to visit my company's office in London, and the following Monday I was at the Royal Festival Hall box office at 10am, to be told: 'We occasionally get returns from ticket agencies. You could try coming back at 5pm.' I was there at 3pm, ferreting among early arrivals in the hope of a spare. No luck. But at 5pm, the box office had a couple of returns. Pricey, but what the hell: side stalls ticket W24 was mine, and canyoueffin'believeit, this turned out to be the front row on the right side of the stage, only a few feet from guitarist Jeffrey Foskett's head. At 50, I was as excited as a kid at Christmas. Andy, 74, retired administration manager, Preston
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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.
