And your ears shall hear…

My biggest takeaway from LCD’s Saturday night show, Day 2 of the Soundsystem’s four night residency at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom, is that they are now a jam band. That’s my closing statement, does the jury have any questions?

At this point of music blogging and reviewing, I’m left to pick out the biggest takeaways instead of writing about which songs sounded good and what didn’t work. LCD is fleshing out their catalog, adding new flourishes, and dressing older songs with new accoutrements. Not to put a finer point on it, but they’ve definitely built a little birdhouse in their soul, and then some. On this night, they sounded like the best version of themselves. As a live unit, they are tightly knit, playing extremely well together. They are not the kids at the party taking each other’s toys, though at times they might switch instruments or help each other out. These kids are sharing time and space, allowing for each player to showcase their parts. For example, “You Wanted A Hit,” which was only given away during the extended intro by that spacey keyboard part, that would typically be hard to hear if everyone was trying to play their loudest. But here, at the Aragon, the instruments were allowed to breathe independently. Once that little keyboard walk-up was teased, there was a united gasp of exasperation. A bunch of us hunched in the east corner of the ‘Brawlroom were smiling at each other because we now had direction. “You wanted a hit/But maybe we don’t do hits/I try and try/It ends up feeling kind of wrong.“

LCD Soundsystem was showing off, or maybe showing us how far they’ve come. Once an electronic act, or dance band, they have made the full metamorphosis to a jam band. They are NOT Phish, but more like the Grateful Dead, finding new ways to keep our favorite songs alive, while surprising us at the same time. That’s what Saturday night was, a big surprise. I was expecting more of their hits, but what we got was a combination of all their music, and when you play four shows in a row, you have to find new ways to keep the rabid fans interested. They did exactly that by resuscitating a discography of albums that many of us know by heart.

“Us v Them” started the show, and within minutes, we were off to the races singing, “The time has come, the time has come, the time has come today!” As the song entered its final stages, my feet were moving and I was throwing my hands up, screaming, “Us v. them/Over and over again.” This was my wife’s first time seeing the LCD crew, so I didn’t want to turn her off with my crazy dance moves, but I felt a special need to explore the space. “American Dream” was way too psychedelic and way too early in the set to get any traction, but “I Can Change” brought the crowd back in a hurry. “You Wanted A Hit” was the sleeper of the night. It’s a song that I’ve never found myself saying, “I need to hear this live.” But it was incredible the way they slowly built into it and rocked it out. This was a prime example of their growth as a band; their chemistry could not be fucked with.

“Tribulations,” “Movement,” and “Yr City’s A Sucker,” felt like the punk rock part of the set as the band revisited their debut in a raucous, distorted mess of guitars and beats that felt chaotic as the feedback walloped the audience over their proverbial heads. They bounced back with such classics as “Get Innocuous!,” Oh Baby,” which was expansive and beautiful, and the funky bass of “Tonite,” closed the first set out perfectly.

“Someone Great” is the song that brought me into the fold and sent me down the LCD rabbit hole, so when they opened the first encore with it I about lost my mind. I had to leave the corner and hit the main floor to dance with the rest of the GA crowd. I love the ending, and James Murphy rocked it singing contemptuously, “When someone great is gone!” During the performance the back of the stage lit up with the words, “Thank You Steve,” and we realized it was a dedication for Steve Albini, someone great who is now gone. “Home” was another song that ended in a 10-minute jam, where the percussion took center stage and the light show went crazy, leading us to believe we were at an old school rave.

All in all it was a fantastic show, and the second encore was as good as it gets. “Dance Yourself Clean” turned the Aragon into a party, “New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down,” gave us a moment to breathe, and “All My Friends” was the perfect nightcap. “Where are my friends tonight?” Well, most of them were there, dancing with me, but the guy that pushed my shoulder thinking I bumped his girlfriend was not. He was a toad. But that toad couldn’t spoil a great night!

Essentially, LCD has moved into an experimental, jam-band phase of their career, and I feel it’s for the better. They can now take a 4-minute song that we’ve known for years, maybe even forgot about, and turn it into a ten-minute jam with new parts and a new way to remember it. Dare I say they are phishing in that grateful territory? Soon, we will be attending all four shows of their residency, waiting for that one song that is only played at 3% of shows. You know, like “Tweezer.” The Soundsystem has reached that status where any live show is a good one. Instead of resting on their laurels, they have taken their gifts and elevated them, embracing themselves as a career act, which I write with the utmost respect. You could have witnessed all four nights and left satiated by each performance.