LCD Soundsystem recap and pictures

A couple of days have pasted and the show is well done and over with. LCD Soundsystem is in route for Europe to tour the festivals overseas. The show was great! It will easily be at the top as one of the best shows this year for me. My favorite moments where when they played All My Friends and Someone Great. I was either in awe, dancing, or jumping up and down to the beat. I was drenched from my head to my shins in sweat after the show had ended. It was almost like I took a shower with my cloths on. Speaking of showers, it rained only once. I was pretty close to the stage, so the oval shaped canopy covered me from the one shower we got before the show even started.

The crowd was a mix. There where even some pre-teens, literally, they had to be between the ages of 10 and 13 yrs old. There where the usual college kids and people my age or older with grey hair. So it was a definite mixed crowd. There was a group of 4( 2 couples) next to me who where having a real hard time dealing with some rowdy college kids behind us. I usually just ignore someone who is bumping and dancing aggressively into me. I feel that's what happens when you are in the front at concerts. In the front row you will be pushed and bumped into, and you will get beer spilled on you along with smoke blown in your general vicinity. If you don't like it, go ahead and voice your position, but if there is no resolution to your personal conundrum, leave or move. That's how I see it. I usually will push back or just try to out dance someone...I'll just shrugged it off and I don't let it stop me from enjoying myself and the music. All I can say is, I had a smile 80% of time at the show.

This is Happening Tour 2010 set list:

-Us v Them
-Drunk Girls
-Yr City's A Sucker
-Pow Pow
-Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
-All My Friends
-I Can Change
-Tribulations
-Movement
-Yeah

Encore:
-Someone Great
-Losing My Edge
-New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down
-Empire State of Mind (Jay-Z cover)

As you can see they played alot of songs from all their albums...






I wish they would have played from the new album:
-All I Want
-One Touch
-Dance Yourself Clean
-You Wanted A Hit
-Home

Have a listen to the new album. I'm not sure how long LCD Soundsystem will keep it up and available to stream/listen for free, but check it out:

http://www.lcdsoundsystem.com/thisishappening/

Looking at the set lists you'll see three songs from the new album that where played on this tour...Drunk Girls, Pow Pow, and I Can Change. Unfortunately Drunk Girls made the list, but I like the other two songs from the album called Pow Pow and I Can Change. Pow Pow has a Talking Heads sound with a spoken word lyrics and playful sounds. I Can Change is an amazing song and it was great to see the band play it live. It has a beautiful electronic sound and a nice catchy chorus. I Can Change makes up for Drunk Girls for sure. I also forgot to write on the last blog post that I also didn't like the song Daft Punk is Playing at My House...I kinda like it, but I did cringed when I heard it started to be played. The crowd was really into it, but I would have rather Get Innocuous be played in its place. I read somewhere someone else was also unhappy that LCD Soundsystem didn't play Get Innocuous. O'well, you gotta compromise sometimes and go along with the masses.

Pictures of LCD Soundsystem from the show via my iphone:






A side note about the show is the opening act, Holy Ghost!...Now I've seen Holy Ghost! twice, and I wasn't expecting much except a pretty good deejay set to get me in the mood to dance. I was wrong. I had been hearing songs on blogs by Holy Ghost! that where really rocking like Say My Name, but it was a full band, not just two DJs. There set was really good. I can't wait to see more of them. They will be touring again or opening up for Chromeo at STUBB'S in August or something. Really shocking and rocking set by em. Here's a pic for proof it's just not DJs:



After the show, the party switched venues to Beauty Bar two blocks over on 7th street and Red River.



I was a sweaty mess so I wanted to go home to change into some dry threads to keep up with the kids. As I flew by Beauty Bar on my shitty bicycle, Donut( kinda like a donut tire on a car), I notice there was a horded line to get in to the after party. I figured two things, it would sellout and I wouldn't get in; or by the time it took me to get changed( so fresh , so clean), there wouldn't be a line and I'd get in. Well, I got in without a wait. I somehow was able to muster up the energy to continue dancing. For heaven sake, I danced on the same dance floor as Mr Murphy himself as Juan Maclean deejayed. Great way to end the night.

This is Happening or Has Already Happend

Austin Texas, Tuesday June 8, 2010 6hour weather forcast:

Scattered showers and thunderstorms developing around late afternoon. Mostly cloudy with temperatures steady or falling to near 81F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.

LCD Soundsystem at STUBB'S June 8 2010:





Get the picture. James Murphy singing in the rain and me dancing in the rain.

So Tuesday will be a great day as LCD Soundsystem graces Austin with an appearance at STUBB'S. If you miss them, they will also be at Austin City Limits(ACL'09) 2009 as well. I got a three day pass to ACL this Year, so I'll probably see again too. I could have saved my money and just passed to see them at ACL, but I didn't want to take the chance. I figured it would be cooler to see'em at a small venue vs at a large music fest. Tonight, everybody will be at STUBB'S for one reason and one reason only, to spazz and rock out to some great music.

I missed LCD at South By Southwest(SXSW'05) 2005 due to an outrageous line and wait. I probably could've seen them sometime prior 'O5 and between '07, but I wasn't on top of it back then, and I can't say I'm really on top of it now. I finally got to see LCD Soundsystem at ACL'07, and I saw them over M.I.A which was kind of a hard choice at the time. I def would do it again. At ACL, I just really fell in love with James Murphy and the music. There's a couple of songs I despise like North American Scum and Drunk Girls. It's not that I don't like lyrics or the message, I just don't like the beats. It can not be said James can do no wrong, but for the most part I can dig his groove. The missed opportunities of the past will not repeat themselves.

Speaking of missed opportunities, when I was cleaning my apartment recently, I came across some CDs that brought to mind the year 1997. Every year has its highlights and let downs, but I have a fond recollection of 1997 and it was an important year in molding my musical taste. The CD that was collecting dust was The Prodigy, The Fat of the Land.


(I HATED the song Firestarter when it aired on MTV)

In Victoria Texas there is nothing to do but drug and drive, and around 1997, Prodigy was stuck on repeat in my car. I was so shocked when MTV played Smack My Bitch Up on TV because of all the nudity and drug use. It was an immediate classic in my book, and Smack My Bitch Up was rocked all day and I partied all night to it. This was also the year I went to Lollapalooza and saw Prodigy unintentionally too.

At the time it was rumored that this would be the last Lollapalooza, but since then it has had a revival of the sorts in 2003. At Lollapalooza '97, I was so stoned the entire time. I can't remember much, but I was in my anti Hip Hop stage, so I protested Snoop Dog and his onstage weed smoking shenanigans as I waited for Tool. I almost protested Prodigy too because before this I wasn't very fond of them or dance music and rave culture in general. This is stupid that MTV would even have a news segment on this but they did; I remember seeing something on MTV news about what Prodigy fans do at a Prodigy concert. Well via MTV news, Prodigy fans jump up and down to the beat. That's it, they just jump up and down. I was stoned and pretty close to the front because TOOL had just finished, so I just stayed put for Prodigy to close out Lollapalooza. I don't know if it was the marijuana or all the aerobic jumping up and down I did, but I thoroughly enjoyed Prodigy's set. I remember drawn in when they played Poison, and you know I went crazy with Smack My Bitch Up. I was sold.

Dance or Electronic music blended by Rock music is what led me to crossover from my '90s alternative rock roots to electronic produced music. At that time('97), I was a hardcore listener of industrial music and I loved the electronic sounds of it. I just didn't like dance music at first, and I didn't see the potential. Skinny Puppy was God to me back in the day. In '97, there was another band which caught my attention that had a semi industrial sound but more of drum and bass beat that hooked me, hook line and sinker. It was Atari Teenage Riot(ATR).



This was the big missed opportunity in 1997. When I saw an ATR MTV music video, I was completely blown away. I loved their compilation album Burn, Berlin, Burn!... Destroy 2,000 Years of Culture and Speed are amazing tracks on the album.

That same year, I heard about a Rage Against the Machines concert. Normally I would be down and would go to a show like that. I wasn't the biggest fan of Rage, but I liked them. I heard they where touring but I decided to pass on it because I was not impressed with the opening act Wu Tang Clan. Don't get all hostile Hip Hop heads, at the time, I just had no interest in Hip Hop. After the Rage show had came through Texas though, I over heard there was another opening act for the Rage show that I didn't hear about before. ATR was that very act. I was so upset that I missed out on seeing an aggressive act like Rage live with ATR. To add to that misery, ATR broke up a couple years later after the death of one it's members, Carl Crack. ATR have recently regrouped with two of the four original members. Alex Empire of ATR still brings that raw heavy sound, but it's just so sad to know that their was moment back 1997 that can not be recreated or repeated identically, and I missed it...c'est la vie

80's Ninja post still coming soon to a blog near you. The next time where going to the movies, and where going back in time again. This time, the year is 10 years earlier, 1987.