Aside from the cobwebs and hanging ghosts around The Shrine, the costumed crowd at LCD Soundsystem’s first show out of eight in Los Angeles made it hard to ignore it was Halloween. Whether it was Cyclops from the 90s “X-Men” cartoon, Master Shake from “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” or the “Space Jam” jerseys a couple wore, the average age of attendees was indicative of the generation that grew up listening to frontman James Murphy’s baritone wails harmonizing with synthetic dance-punk songs.
Although LCD Soundsystem has not released any music in seven years, save for a few singles and features, the announcement of two residencies at The Shrine and the Hollywood Palladium reignited whispers about new music. After announcing their short-lived retirement in 2011 before coming back with “american dream” in 2017, the band has more or less kept a low profile, returning as if they never left.
As some of The Shrine’s crew made sure everything was in place, the burgeoning New York City opening trio Fcukers worked their way around LCD Soundsystem’s equipment on stage, which looked as if they had an entire studio airlifted into The Shrine. In some way, Fcukers’s story — young but seasoned musicians with history in NYC’s indie scene trying their hand at electronic music — finds them at the opposite end of where Murphy and the gang find themselves now.
While it might be easy to imagine Fcukers as contemporaries to LCD Soundsystem if they were around in the 2000s, the first few minutes of “Devils Cut” put that theory to rest. The distinctly 90s house flair to their music, somehow an added boost to their traditional guitarist, singer and drummer setup, easily won the audience over despite no one knowing any of the lyrics to heart. Vocalist Shannon Wise’s hushed singing was another unconventional ingredient to their formula, often falling underneath the booming bass yet maintaining attention with her hops around the stage.
The high point came when “Homie Don’t Shake” and its warhorn of a guitar overtook The Shrine. Inspiring something between a rave and a punk show among an audience gradually gathering around, Fcukers let each group member a moment to show off, ranging from a drum solo to piano keys so sonically similar to Kerri Chandler they could have come from his personal sound pack.
After some crew shuffled around once again, working like a pitstop team, LCD Soundsystem began with a cover of “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” while backlit by red lights. The nine-minute song was the kind of gothic energy a band or artist would want to bring on Halloween, with Murphy sauntering to the front like a newly awakened vampire — coiled microphone in hand — and doing his best Peter Murphy (no relation) impression.
From there, they spent half their set playing “A cavalcade of non-hits,” as Murphy put it. However, even during less iconic tracks such as “Movement” and “tonite,” they expanded upon each one from their studio recordings and amplified them like they let a powerline crash onto their equipment. Their “tonite” performance, in particular, took a stripped-down track in their metric and pushed the limits for how much they could stretch a relatively lesser addition from “american dream.” Before they transitioned to the softer “I Can Change,” the synths acted as invisible bugs buzzing the floor underneath everyone’s feet.
Unsurprisingly, more recognizable songs garnered heaps of jumpers and dancers in front of them. “Losing My Edge” stood out as the most electric performance of the night, second to “Dance Yrself Clean.” The former saw Murphy ad-libbing and humorously trailing off more than he did in the already unhinged lyrics, having a breakdown trying to teach Captain Beefheart “Verse, chorus, verse, chorus.” On the opposite end, the premiere of their newest single, “x-ray eyes,” kept the crowd grooving to what was a positive sign the band overcame their peers in terms of sustainability.
The feedback on almost all of the songs, although loud and easily blaring past The Shrine walls, matched the band’s visible enthusiasm and made it impossible for them to lose the kinetic energy Fcukers passed over to them, allowing them to run for what felt like the equivalent of 120 yards. At the front were longtime members Murphy, Pat Mahoney and Nancy Whang, who Murphy kept insisting was her aunt Grace. Often joking with one another and dancing, their friendship rubbed off, even when Murphy playfully kicked Mahoney’s drums between their marching band duties.
The second to last track, “New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down,” brought out the old-school crooner in Murphy, perhaps the last of his kind. In what might be the greatest love song about a city, performed on the other side of the United States and punctuated by an audience member who kept yelling “Fuck you” after every “I love you,” LCD Soundsystem conjured up honest sentimentality out of their machines.
While “Someone Great” and “All My Friends” also allowed moments where the unspecific yet universal storytelling could be taken in, hearing Murphy give his all about his love-hate relationship with NYC felt no different than what it was like hearing him record it for the first time. As the disco ball above their heads rotated all night, LCD Soundsystem proved track after track they may be the only individuals on Earth who discovered a wormhole that could ensure a safe trip for music talents across decades.
LCD Soundsystem will be at the Hollywood Palladium on November 7, 8, 9 and 10.