Less than two hours ago, PJ Harvey’s set was preceded by conceptual artist Marina Abramovic’s seven minutes of silence for universal peace. But Friday night on the Pyramid Stage must also live by noise, beats and direct human engagement, and tonight LCD Soundsystem deliver in excess.
Less than two hours ago, PJ Harvey’s set was preceded by conceptual artist Marina Abramovic’s seven minutes of silence for universal peace. But Friday night on the Pyramid Stage must also live by noise, beats and direct human engagement, and tonight LCD Soundsystem deliver in excess.
Preceded by Rufus and Chaka Khan’s Ain’t Nobody, they come in slow, with bushy-eyebrow’d singer James Murphy crooning like Alan Vega amidst bass bumps and crystalline chorales on Oh Baby from 2017’s American Dream. It’s an early reminder of Murphy’s emotional side, as he closes his eyes and sings about love and other profound moments, surrounded by banks of analogue synths with wires and the ruthless on-it rhythm machine that is the LCD group. After I Can Change interpolates a quote from Kraftwerk’s Computer Love, the big beats begin with On Repeat. Raw-nerve dance-funk – in this case, think Talking Heads spliced with Kelly Marie’s Feels Like I’m In Love - Murphy stalks the stage in dark suit and white trainers and starts losing it as Al Doyle’s guitar turns a Chic-riff into a percussion instrument. Tonite keeps up the heat with its krautrock-in-the-disco, and a crazed Losing My Edge gets funnier as it ages, with particular tight-but-loose propulsion by drummer Pat Mahoney and a snippet of Yazoo’s 1982 hit Don’t Go sung by synth operator Nancy Whang. By turns you also hear New Order’s Power, Corruption & Lies, The Human League, Hi-NRG, and other threads in electronic music, and the dance beats and affecting narratives arguably peak with the delicate gut-punch of absent-friends salute Someone Great, where Murphy and Wang share an embrace like old comrades.
After Dance Yrself Clean, they complete the circle with the surging, crowd-sung arena-house of All My Friends, with kudos to the keyboard player who plays all of the repetitive Philip Glass-style piano figure live. Another song of connection, remembrance and the ineffable beyondness of things, it’s an omni-applicable premise: to this now-veteran band, back together; to all of us lucky enough to be here with our friends; and to all those who can’t be. As it ends, a howling Murphy wrings himself out into the mic one last time. Glorious even in its incongruities, this set brought huge uplift, and catharsis.
Set List:
Oh Baby
I Can Change
On Repeat
Tribulations
Tonite
Losing My Edge
Home
Someone Great
Dance Yrself Clean
All My Friends
Stay on MOJO4MUSIC across the weekend for full coverage of Glastonbury 2024’s best music, including Squeeze's opening greatest hits show, Dexys at the Park Stage, Dua Lipa taking the Pyramid Stage and more!
Picture: LCD Soundsytem, Parque Bicentenario, Mexico, March 2024. Credit: Eyepix