For some reason I never saw LCD Soundsystem in concert the first time round. After they called it a day I went to my local cinema to watch "Shut Up and Play the Hits", the film centred around their final gig at Madison Square Garden I realised how good they were live and regretted not going to see them in concert.
However the beginning of last year saw the return of LCD Soundsystem and last night was their first gig in London aside from festivals since the comeback.
A few days prior to the gig I was sent the set times and saw Shit Robot was playing when the doors opened at 18:30 and again at 20:30, someone I'd quite like to see. It wasn't logistically possible for me to get there at 18:30 but I aimed to get there for around 20:00 so I could see him at 20:30.
Unfortunately Ally Pally is quite possibly the worst gig venue in London to get to. Alexandra Palace station isn't served by the tube, only trains and it's then a never ending walk up a long hill to get to the venue itself. On arrival we were greeted by a huge queue, the reason apparently because they were doing ID checks, but when I got to the door they didn't even properly look at my ID. Then came the huge queue for the toilet and huge queue for the bar, so not only did I miss Shit Robot but I also missed the start of LCD Soundsystem.
Needless to say I wasn't in the best of moods at this point, but LCD Soundsystem playing "I Can Change" soon changed that. It's almost inevitable that when a band of a certain age plays a gig the crowd will generally favour the old stuff over the new, particularly when the new album hasn't been out long enough for people to be too familiar with yet. This was evident when "Tribulations" from the first album was played.
Just like the album, next up came "Movement" and when that began I thought it would be the moment the crowd would erupt but surprisingly they didn't. They did gain some momentum though when "Yeah", also from the first album came was played.
Around an hour in James Murphy said they would play three songs, go for a pee, then play another three songs. It didn't sound a lot, but their songs are quite long so I could easily see it being another hour.
The first two came from the new album and then they played "Home" from the third album which I think is around 10 minutes long. After returning from their toilet break they did "Losing My Edge" and then James Murphy said they actually have time to fit another song in so they did one from the new album. Then came "Dance Yrself Clean" and they finished with "All My Friends".
As the only direct train from Alexandra Palace to Kings Cross between 23:00 - 0:00 was at 23:12 we left at 22:55 which was around half way through "All My Friends". They had blocked the station entrance nearest the venue so we had to go round the other side and only made the train because it was a minute late, that's how long it takes to get from the station to the venue alone. I dread to think how long it would have taken me to get home had I not ducked out early.
Overall, a great performance from LCD Soundsystem and I'm glad I finally got to see them play, but a terrible venue and the atmosphere was a bit flat, but you can't fault the band for that
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