How LCD Soundsystem executed a perfect post-breakup revival
13 years ago, LCD Soundsystem played their final gig. They took to the stage at Madison Square Garden and performed for almost four hours straight. James Murphy bragged about Daft Punk playing at his house, lost his breath and his edge listing band names in his debut single for the project, and dragged out the pause in ‘New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down’ for one last time.
Beneath a shimmering disco ball and an outpouring of white balloons, their set spanned the biggest hits and obscurities in their catalogue, each sending the audience further into frenzied passion at the prospect of witnessing LCD’s untimely end. “If it’s a funeral,” read a title card in Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern’s documentary of the show, Shut Up and Play the Hits, “Let’s have the best funeral ever.”
Murphy and his bandmates certainly put on one hell of a show that night at Madison Square Garden, but it wasn’t necessarily the funeral that they had advertised. Just four years after LCD Soundsystem struck those final chords of ‘New York, I Love You’, they returned. First, with a Christmas song. Then, a Coachella performance. Then, in 2017, a full album. American Dream.
They’re yet to release another studio record since then. Their only full-length release has been 2019’s Electric Lady Sessions and yet, they’ve somehow maintained the relevance of a band who are actively releasing. Since American Dream, the band have dropped the odd single—an Idles collaboration here, a song for a film soundtrack there—but this is one of the least important elements of their widely successful revival.
Rather than sustaining themselves with new studio releases, the band have remained a cultural force via the blistering live set they went out on 13 years ago. When LCD Soundsystem unveiled Shut Up and Play The Hits in 2012, allowing the rest of the world into Madison Square Garden for that final gig, they incited unparalleled FOMO in each and every viewer.
Whether you missed out on tickets or lived on the other side of the world to New York, those of us who weren’t lucky enough to secure entry to that apparent final show were green with envy. The documentary made the gig look transcendental with shots of the crowd uniting in their love for this band and the band uniting in their love for what they had made together.
It seems that LCD Soundsystem may have caught onto this fact, as their revival has been dominated by live shows, providing fans with the opportunity to experience that euphoria. They still pick their shows carefully, playing interesting residencies at smaller venues or headline slots at exciting festivals, ensuring that each and every show facilitates that feeling.
This year has demonstrated the revived love for LCD Soundsystem more than ever before. After a standout set at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, everyone was pining for the chance to hear ‘All My Friends’ live, to dance along to disco punk in a field with their friends and pretend it’s 2008 again. Audiences flocked to the fields at All Points East, at Rock en Seine, at Forwards Festival, and so many others just for a taste of the feeling they bottled at MSG.
This new, full-blown revival also seems to have been bolstered by our current popular culture. We’re approaching two decades since the release of LCD Soundsystem’s self-titled debut, and in line with the 20-year rule in fashion, nostalgia for the indie scene of the 2000s is already back with a vengeance.
Tiktokkers have been recreating the style of the 2000s for years now and even popstars like Charli XCX are calling back to the sleazy dance music of the era. Artists like The Dare, Fcukers and The Hellp are calling back more directly to the sounds of LCD Soundsystem and their peers, bringing hedonism and humour back to indie music, filling their lyrics with referentiality and sleaze.
As these artists find favour with the budding dance punk kids of today, they’re also looking back to the era of electroclash and seedy indie music that preceded them. LCD Soundsystem may have kickstarted their revival seven years ago with the release of American Dream, but it was primed for success in the early 2020s amidst our collective longing for the New York scene of 20 years ago.
Timing and cultural shifts may have been on LCD Soundsystem’s side, but the interest in their revival is completely deserved. Particularly in a live setting, their sound represents precisely what music should and always has been about: being with all your friends tonight, dancing until your worn-in Docs are rubbing your heels again, feeling truly whole for a moment. Thank God that the Madison Square Garden show wasn’t their last.
