Sunday 2nd May 2010 @ Academy, Bristol
With Support From: Yacht

The first bank holiday weekend in May and lets face it, whoever doesn’t have work on Monday is going out on Sunday night! This explains why the Academy is packed to the rafters for LCD Soundsystem. Rumours have been rife that this may be the final album and tour for LCD so this could be a pretty interesting gig.

The atmosphere was strangely tense with some people already incredibly drunk and raucous from the get go. The tour support was provided by Yacht, an American dance music collective that apparently constantly changes whilst the main song writer (along with some crazy dance moves) remains the same. They seem to whip parts of the crowd into a frenzy with some very 80’s sounding electro pop that would make Yazoo proud.

When LCD Soundsystem take to the stage, there is quite an extreme amount of pushing and shoving for a gig of this kind. I don’t know if it’s due to the booze or the band holiday but the rowdyness seemed to add tonnes more energy to the bass and beats being lashed around. This tour is pre-empting the release of the new album, This Is Happening, and the song Drunk Girls from it seemed to whip everyone into a bit of a frenzy, ironically. This was all just a taster of what was to come. I knew the mosh-pit would gather even more pace once Daft Punk Is Playing At My House was uttered and I was right. The cheers from the front of the room were almost deafening! The set was laced with loops and samples from other artists like Jay-Z and M.I.A. and occasionally it seemed to turn into a bit of a 2 Many DJs show which is never a bad thing in my eyes but sometimes detracts from the new material you’re trying to promote.

LCD Soundsystem have always had a cult following in the realm of dance trailblazers and with such a great response to this gig and the new album, it seems insane to me that this could be the last we see of LCD (in this guise at least). Let’s hope its not.

www.lcdsoundsystem.com

Stu Freeman