THE SUNDAY CORRESPONDENTS

FAREWELL LCD SOUNDSYSTEM

The rumours that James Murphy, the architect and brainchild behind New York collective LCD Soundsystem, (and cofounder of DFA Records) was due to retire the band had been circulating for a while and he had been laying the ground for an announcement for some time when finally it came…. on Feb 5th 2011.

There was to be one last LCD farewell gig on their home turf at Madison Square Garden on Sat 2nd of April and billed as the ‘long farewell’ it was to be a 3+ hour show with guests and all sorts of extras and unusual song inclusions.

In the time since Losing my Edge announced LCD to the world back in 2002 they have released three unmissable albums (four if you count 45.33) and numerous classic singles and remixes. No other band in the last 10 years has given me so much enjoyment and after having seen them live a number of times I absolutely had to be there for the final farewell on 02/04!

Tickets went on-sale on 11 Feb at 14.00 UK time which shouldn’t have been too much of a problem as MSG has a capacity of 15.000 and LCD had never played to a crowd of that size for one of their own shows prior to this (James Murphy subsequently admitted that he thought they would fill the venue but only perhaps with a few days to spare). So, 14.00 arrived and Ticketmaster US and the Bowery websites show sold out within 2 mins of going on sale…. WHAT??? How can that be???

The LCD web forum filled with fans complaining that they couldn’t get tickets and some of the band’s friends (not wishing to hassle them) can’t get any either WTF???? Within 5 mins the first scalper tickets appear on E-bay and StubHub with a face value of $80 selling for $1,000.

It’s all kicking off and within a few hours Murphy has posted a long tirade on the website entitled ‘Fuck You Scalpers, Terminal 5 shows added’. In order to screw the scalpers and suppress demand, he has added four extra shows at the 3,500 capacity Terminal Five venue on the 28/29/30/31st of March with details of ticket sale to be announced – Yay, back in with a shout of a ticket!!

Finally on 22 Feb at 14.03 UK time I secured two tickets for the show on 30 March with all four shows selling out quickly but far more of the fanbase had been satisfied and would be at one of the farewell shows.

Well done to James and LCD for adding the dates and listening to the fans (an almost Joe Strummeresque thing to do).

No tickets would be sent electronically or by hardcopy. The only way of collecting your ticket was on the night itself by showing photo ID and producing the credit card that you used for payment – a pretty good way of stopping scalpers in their tracks!

Fast-forward by a few weeks and the 30th of March had now arrived and here we were in NYC already having holiday fun and full of anticipation for the show at Terminal 5 that night. Reviews from the fans on the LCD forum for the previous two shows were absolutely raving and the setlist looked unbelievably mouth watering. After a perfectly executed ticket collection we entered the venue in enough time to catch a bit of Shit Robots support slot. The venue is on 3 floors with plentiful facilities and drinks can be had within a couple of minutes (nothing like Brixton Academy then!) and finding a good position was relatively easy from which to view this historic farewell.

At 9.05, to the walk on music of 10cc’s ‘I’m not in Love’, the final LCD Soundsystem show (for me anyway) was underway. Starting with Dance Yrself Clean the atmosphere was electric, more like a fiesta really with seemingly the whole 3,500 attendees ready to party and celebrate big time. Now, my friends, I have been to more gigs than had hot dinners with the count into the high hundreds and have tasted the atmosphere of many a fine venue including the legendary Glasgow Apollo. However, I have NEVER experienced such a strong sense of camaraderie and sense of purpose to simply have fun and support the band! For the next 3 hours and 20 minutes T5 was a full-blown rowdy, singing, dancing cacophony of noise and celebration for the finest band of the last 10 years. Playing many songs that hadn’t been heard live before or at least for a very long time and aided by additional singers and a very tasty brass section, the sound was fantastic and joyous. Comprising of two sets with a very brief break between them, the night flew by and soon it was the final farewell.

Set 1


Dance Yrself Clean
Drunk Girls
I Can Change
Time To Get Away
Get Innocuous!
Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
Too Much Love
All My Friends 



Set 2


45:33 Part One
45:33 Part Two
Sound of Silver
45:33 Part Four
45:33 Part Five
45:33 Part Six
Freak Out/Starry Eyes
Us v Them
North American Scum
You Wanted A Hit
Tribulations
Movement
Yeah 



Encore:


Someone Great 

Losing My Edge
Home 



Encore 2:


All I Want
Jump Into the Fire 
(Harry Nilsson cover)
New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down


It’s difficult to pick out any one highlight, but the rendition of the full version of 45.33 was truly epic and so wonderful I can barely communicate how fabulous it was.

Now that the dust has settled and a few weeks have past I can reflect back on what was truly one of the top 5 gigs of the whole of my life and that’s really saying something!

So thanks for the memories James & Co and enjoy whatever you do next!

To quote from Losing my Edge  ‘I was there!’

mp3 : LCD Soundsystem - Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
mp3 : LCD Soundsystem - New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down

IAN FENTON, SUNDAY 22 MAY 2011