Photograph by Jon Wilde
“I have good news and bad news,” James Murphy said as LCD Soundsystem took the stage for the first time in over two years last night in Brooklyn. “The good news is, we’re here. The bad news is, I’m wasted.” No no, dude — that’s the great news. The New York punk-funk heavyweights have an early single-of-the-year contender with the irresistible rock anthem “Drunk Girls,” but it’s a totally different song when several hundred drunk girls are there screaming along. Though Murphy kept cautioning the sweat-drenched crowd at Music Hall of Williamsburg that this triumphant hometown gig was more a rehearsal than a show (”This is you trusting us and us trying to work out being a band again”), the seven-piece band didn’t sound rusty at all — they attacked each electro-funk workout like a pit bull on a porkchop. In 2007, LCD Soundsystem were the planet’s most ferocious live band — yet in the past three years they’ve just gotten better. Lord help us all.
Singer/producer/tai chi madman James Murphy was coasting on adrenaline all night — plus, as he admitted, his signature tipple of champagne and whiskey. The band did only two songs from their upcoming and even-awesomer-than-everyone-hoped This Is Happening, which comes out on May 18th: “Drunk Girls” (”Drunk boys like to steal from the cupboards / Drunk girls like to file complaints” — true that) and “I Can Change,” which sounds like Brian Eno taking Ecstasy on the beach with Morrissey and Depeche Mode. Drummer Pat Mahoney and bassist Tyler Pope were on fire, while synth wizard Nancy Whang had some choice words for the dudes trying to slamdance into people: “Look at the two people on either side of you. If one of them is not a girl, you are dancing inc...
Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily