I was supremely excited to finally see LCD Soundsystem on Saturday night at the Tribeca Grand. LCD Soundsystem has been incredibly sparse with its releases (four singles in two years) and just as sparse with its live performances. It can be frustrating as a fan, but everything they've done is so good that you can't complain. So instead the hype builds and builds, mainly on the strength of the brilliant "Losing My Edge" and "Yeah" singles, the latter being the rare 10 minute song that you wish was longer. Their first full-length finally comes out in January.

I often thought of LCD as a James Murphy project, something he does on the side along with running DFA Records and being an ace producer/remixer. But it was clear from the moment they took the stage around 1:45 AM that they are very much a band, five strong in fact. (And dressed as cooks - it was Halloween after all.) Murphy was sometimes on percussion but mainly just handled vocals, backed by a drummer, bassist, keyboardist, and percussionist/guitarist. It was very impressive to see them live and realize how organic the songs all are. The band is super tight and pulls off the studio details of each song, but can also really jam live - showing it immediately with an excellent "Beat Connection" to start the show. Murphy is a great frontman with a ton of energy on stage. Combine this all with the hype and the fact that the songs kick ass and it's hard not to be swept up by it - I came in with very high hopes and I was not disappointed. (Being literally 3 feet from the stage didn't hurt, of course.)

The list of highlights has to begin with "Yeah", my favorite of their singles - or any singles from the past year. I've listened to this song many many times and tried to piece together who was doing what as it morphs from a funked up discopunk number into a full-on acid techno jam. Now I know - halfway through, the bassist switches to a Moog and starts tweaking it out, the percussionist joins the keyboardist on the electronics before heading back to his kit, and Murphy starts to pound away on his own drums. Simply badass, and positively fucking profound.

They could have just played "Yeah" and walked off stage and I would have been happy. Instead, we got a bunch of other highlights. The new single "Movement" works even better on stage, especially when it explodes midway through. It definitely got the crowd moving. It being Halloween, they also played 3 covers. Joy Division's "Transmission" ended the show and was the best of the bunch, but Danzig's "Mother" was good too. (We couldn't recognize the third.)

Though it may read otherwise so far, it wasn't a perfect show. The drummer broke his kick head midway through and struggled with it from then on - it seemed like it may have cut the show short. So no "Losing My Edge" as a result, which was very unfortunate. It was also LOUD and the mix wasn't perfect. But being so close, I guess that's to be expected.

All in all, a fantastic show that was well worth all the anticipation. I cannot wait until their full-length drops, and until then I'll have the new DFA compilation to keep me busy.

SETLIST:

Beat Connection
Daft Punk is Playing at My House
Mother (Danzig)
Tribulations
Movement
? (cover)
Yeah
Transmission (Joy Division)