The New Music

During a week in which his latest album, This Is Happening, received “universal acclaim,” James Murphy brought LCD Soundsystem to Toronto for possibly the last time ever. Recently admitting that his third album will be his last, the Kool Haus was packed with fans both looking to get their sweat on and to bid adieu. And with his six-member band accompanying him, Murphy pieced together a set that made for an unforgettable night.

Front and centre on stage, Murphy was an obliging host, addressing the crowd like he was a lifelong friend, but also acting like an advisor, suggesting all the amateur videographers out there might maximize their fun by turning off the cameras and putting their own enjoyment ahead of YouTube’s. He followed that up by joking, “What do I know? I’m old.” Old by age, maybe, but not by action.

New single “Drunk Girls” certainly fit the venue’s Animal House-like atmosphere, encouraging both sexes with its double entendre to drink up and let go. The effervescent buzz of “Daft Punk Is Playing My House” and “Tribulations” offered up the same kind of release, converting the voluminous warehouse space into a house party that, if you closed your eyes, could very well have been back at Murphy’s place in Brooklyn. And “Movement,” an homage to Murphy’s all-time favourite band The Fall, verged on instigating a mosh pit due to its undulating pulse and raucous crescendos.

But the party vibe didn’t rest entirely on the band’s frat-pleasing rockers. LCD Soundsystem’s strength is in the multi-faceted nature of the music. “Get Innocuous!” and “Yeah” delved into the band’s knack for repetition-fuelled electro, while even the relatively unknown post-punk-centric B-side “Yr City’s A Sucker” kept heads nodding, despite its apparent obscurity.

Where LCD Soundsystem remain an anomaly though is in Murphy’s prowess for pulling out poignant paeans. “Someone Great” might fizz with oscillating synths and gurgling rhythms, but the subterranean bass drops only heighten the sentimentality behind the lyrics. And then there was the titular cousins “All I Want” and “All My Friends,” which Murphy dedicated to Toronto’s queer club king Will Munro, who passed away last week of brain cancer. The former bled with the soaring riff from Bowie’s “Heroes,” while the latter skipped to the piano, giving Murphy the right framework to express his nostalgia.

Closing with the one-two punch of his hipster-baiting signature song “Losing My Edge” and the open letter to his hometown “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down” (which now features Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind” as an addendum), James Murphy and his Soundsystem crossed every finger in the Kool Haus that it wasn’t their final show in Toronto. Because as he proved on this night, James Murphy certainly hasn’t lost any of that edge yet.

Check out the set list here.

-Cam Lindsay