SHOW of the year: lcd soundsystem
LCD Soundsystem at Kilby Block Party 2024 (credit to author)
Kilby Block Party was one of the best festivals I’ve ever been to (and I’ve been to quite a few), but that’s a whole other story. LCD Soundsystem is one of my favorite musical acts of the last half-century. To see them headlining in the middle of Salt Lake City—a city so stunning it takes the wind right out of your lungs, and I felt gatekept from it as an ignorant east coaster—was nothing short of magical.
It’s hard to overstate the imposing scale of an LCD Soundsystem show. Seeing one up close is like standing at the foot of the Empire State Building: aside from James Murphy and Nancy Whang (and her iconic bob), there are no fewer than ten people on stage at any given moment, and towers and towers of synths, keys, and percussion. I was lucky enough to see LCD two more times in 2024 during their Knockdown Center residency, so I feel qualified to say that the the iconic “Dance Yrself Clean” drop does not get any less intense, and will take you right back to your dorm parties in 2014. (Naming the top three shows of the year to all be LCD shows would have been gratuitous, of course, but I mention their Knockdown shows to reiterate that their top-notch performance I saw at Kilby was not a fluke.)
Between particularly electric performances of “Tribulations” and “Yr City’s a Sucker,” James Murphy was sucking on oxygen straight from the mini-tank, presumably short of breath from the city’s high altitude. It didn’t stop him from delivering a two-hour set so energetic I feel like I need to hire his doctors. “Someone Great” was a cathartic, boomy peak. I’d like to think LCD Soundsystem’s legacy will stand the test of time; either way, though, I’d like to think this is a set I’ll be telling my grandchildren about. It was emotional but irreverent, clean but jammy. The set ended appropriately with “All My Friends,” where 25,000 festival-goers joined Murphy in belting one of my favorite lyrics of all time: “I wouldn’t trade one stupid decision / for another 5 years of life.”
By Meredith Mattlin