LCD Soundsystem made a powerful return to the UK stage at the All Points East Festival in London’s Victoria Park this weekend, headlining the event for the first time since their 2018 performance at the festival’s inaugural edition. The celebrated New York electro-rock group, led by frontman James Murphy, delivered a set that felt like a homecoming, filled with both hits and deep cuts that showcased their unique blend of dance-punk and electronic rock.
The band kicked off their set with a series of crowd-pleasers, exploding into the set with the raucous ‘Losing My Edge’. The band served up its joyous hit ‘I can Change’ early on, with the song’s distinctive whirling introduction being met with thunderous cheers.
The night took an emotional turn when Murphy addressed the crowd before performing ‘Someone Great’. “Yesterday, we lost a very dear friend of ours, Justin Chearno. We’re all fucking destroyed. We’re trying our best. We love him and miss him. This sucks. Thank you for being here and being a part of it,” Murphy said. Chearno, a co-founding partner with Murphy of the Michelin-starred restaurant and wine bar ‘The Four Horsemen’ in Brooklyn, New York, passed away this week, and the band’s grief shone through the performance and provided a poignant subtext to the many of Murphy’s songs that deal with issues of loss.
Later in the set Murphy embraced keyboardist Nancy Whang during the closing of ‘Dance Yrself Clean’, before dedicating a heartfelt rendition of ‘New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down’ to Chearno, which met a rapturous reception from the crowd.
Credit: vanrok on YouTube
Since their founding in Brooklyn in 2002 by Murphy, LCD Soundsystem have become a leading influence in the garage, indie, and electronic genres. Their debut single, “Losing My Edge,” released in 2002, became an underground hit, setting the stage for their critically acclaimed self-titled debut album in 2005. This album earned them a Grammy nomination and solidified their place in the music industry. Their follow-up albums, Sound of Silver (2007) and This Is Happening (2010), further cemented their status, with the latter becoming their first top-ten album in the U.S. Despite a brief disbandment in 2011, LCD Soundsystem reunited in 2015 and released “American Dream” in 2017, which debuted at number one on the US charts.
Against the backdrop of grief, the band’s penchant for capturing the wistful and the bittersweet in their songs came into sharp focus. Finishing the set with the fan-favourite, eternally-escalating ‘All My Friends’, the tender and vulnerable notes of Murphy’s lyricism had perhaps never been more fitting. Despite the underlying sorrow, though, LCD Soundsystem proved they have lost none of their sonic might, as the performance proved a showcase of the band’s enduring appeal and their ability to connect with fans with a combination of visceral dance floor energy and emotional incisiveness that few artists have managed.
