LCD Soundsytem at Koolhaus, Toronto ON, 5-25-10

Dance music. It’s the best way most people can think to describe LCD Soundsytem. The songs are bouncy, and it is quite difficult to remain still while listening to them, but there’s so much more to it than that. James Murphy’s combination of rapid punk and elongated beats makes his version of dance music seem stable, less fleeting than most, like the songs became classics with the first thump of the beat. This feeling came with 2007’s already worshiped Sound of Silver, on which Murphy shouts refrains that roll quickly off the tongue, they are affirmations as well as questions. In one such case, on the piano leaden epic All My Friends, Murphy asserts, “You spent the first five years trying to get with the plan, and the next five years trying to be with your friends again.” It’s his ode to aging, to the cycle of life as he sees it, and it’s hard to argue with him. Sound of Silver was full of Murphy’s more ambiguous declarations while 2010’s This is Happening, is less muddled and more emotional. One of the albums early tracks is entitled I Can Change, and involves one of Murphy’s most heart-breaking lines. “I can change, I can change, I can change if it helps you fall in love,” it’s pure humanity, sad, and unabashedly truthful. The rest of the album follows suit, Drunk Girls doesn’t seem like it would provide much in the way of lyrical brilliance but along with it’s quips comes lines like “I believe in waking up together, so that means making eyes across the room.” Somehow Murphy’s version of drunken hook-ups seem almost romantic. This is Happening is another notch in Murphy’s belt, an almost perfect collection of songs that are not only danceable but also questionable and memorable. This was my first time seeing LCD and I don’t think I was exactly prepared for what was to come. I took my usual spot up front, and quickly became swallowed up in a sea of moving bodies. Nobody was still, at least as far as I could see. The crowd was frantic, rhythmic and sweaty. Murphy and co opened with Us vs. Them, which pumped even more adrenaline into the already hyper crowd. Everyone seemed to know what was coming, and when the audience joined Murphy in a refrain of “us and them, over and over again,” it was clear that the night was going to be special. The rest of the set-list featured much of This is Happening as well as a substantial amount of LCD classics like Get Innocuous, Someone Great and All My Friends along side earlier gems like Tribulations and the crowd favorite Daft Punk is Playing at my House. The four-song encore featured oldie Losing My Edge as well as a New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down/ Empire State of Mind combo. Throughout the night the energy of the crowd as well as the band never ceased and I left with a permanent smile, my heart pumping, and my clothes soaked in sweat, there is no way this was just plain dance music.