IT would be wrong of me to start by professing my own love of this band who have so effortlessly perfected the amalgam of electronic and analogue music dating as far back as 2007. It would also be an omission not to mention the trepidation felt by some of the LCD congregation surrounding their recent reformation.
From the moment the opening sub-bass of ‘Get Innocuous!’ rumbled through the ballroom, all was forgotten. Moments later the enigmatic James Murphy appeared clad appropriately for the humidity in a plain white t-shirt. Momentum intensified as the band expeditiously launched into ‘I Can Change’ only serving to re-iterate that shut up and play the hits was still very much the band’s ethos.
The interspersion of recent American Dream singles ‘Call The Police’ and ‘Tonite’ along with album track ‘I Used To’ felt seamless amongst the band’s older repertoire and strobe heavy lighting rig.
The new material is very much built for the stage with guitarist Al Doyle’s stylings reminiscent of that played by Robert Fripp on Bowie’s seminal album Low.
After a brief heckling subsequent to James announcing ‘we need to go and pee now!’, the band closed their set with a heartfelt rendition of the ever appropriate ‘New York, I Love You but you’re Bringing Me Down’.
Their encore began with a heavily ad-libbed, funked up first outing of ‘Losing my Edge’ for the current tour. It’s lyrics veering off into stream of consciousness ramblings about telling Captain Beefheart ‘no man, it has to go verse chorus verse chorus chorus chorus!’.
The penultimate ‘Dance Yrself Clean’ may just have been the set’s defining moment as glitter-ball light emanated across the hall. Set closer ‘All My Friends’ echoed across the ballroom as the band played straight through the curfew of their on-stage set timer.
On a rare address, Murphy exclaimed ‘thank you for delivering’ to the baying mob amongst an explanation that the band had new crew whom were told to be ready for the Glasgow shows. No James, thank you. Indie disco might be finished but this band have rose from the dead.
