LCD SOUNDSYSTEM
Concert Review
LCD Soundsystem Is Doing It Again
LCD Soundsystem. Knockdown Center. Queens, NYC. Photo by Pablo Herrera (TMN®).
LCD Soundsystem is doing it again. They’re filling up the Knockdown Center with 12 shows over three weekends — and we were there to see how it’s going. And yes, we can confirm: it’s going well. Very well. It’s going exactly like LCD goes.
NEW YORK CITY. By Pablo Herrera, Founder of TMN®
How does it feel to see your hometown band play in their own backyard? It feels special. It feels intimate. It feels like being home. Like finding your family again after years apart — and realizing how much you missed them while they were gone.
There’s a language in how James Murphy does things. LCD doesn’t tour just because. They don’t play just to feed an algorithm. They appear when it feels right. They gather the family every once in a while and they just play. The crowd yesterday was mostly Gen X (like myself) and millennials — with a surprising number of Gen Z kids, curious, attentive, fully locked in. And they stayed. Because LCD is one of those bands you don’t “get” instantly. It takes time. And that’s part of the magic. Remember when James Murphy said he wasn’t interested in being mainstream? He was right. Mainstream often destroys what’s authentic. It turns anthems into products, and products into traps.
LCD Soundsystem. Tonite. Knockdown Center. Queens, NYC. Video by Pablo Herrera.
The first time I saw LCD Soundsystem was in 2005 at Benicàssim Festival in Spain. Same mix of Gen X friends and millennials just discovering the festival world. What we saw felt entirely new. And 20 years later, it’s still wild to realize how LCD remains impossible to copy — still doing what many don’t even dare to try.
“The first time I saw LCD Soundsystem was in 2005 at Benicàssim Festival in Spain. Same mix of Gen X friends and millennials just discovering the festival world. What we saw felt entirely new. And 20 years later, it’s still wild to realize how LCD remains impossible to copy — still doing what many don’t even dare to try.”
This might be the eighth or ninth time I’ve seen them. Festivals. Small Brooklyn venues. Massive stages like Primavera Sound in Barcelona. And then life layered another meaning on top: I met my wife in Brooklyn in 2014, only to find out she was also an LCD fan — and that she had been at the legendary Madison Square Garden “farewell” shows. I learned that on the very first night we met. Since then, that shared Gen X musical DNA keeps pulling us back to every LCD show we can attend.
Once, in 2016, I even ran into James Murphy on a flight from New York to Barcelona, on our way to Primavera Sound. He was by himself on the Madrid–Barcelona leg. I approached him. He was kind. Shy, even. Humble. We talked like two humans. That kind of moment stays with you forever.
I’m sharing all this because I didn’t want to write another article telling you which songs they played last night. It doesn’t really matter. If you know LCD, you know what they played. You know the songs sounded fresh. You know they played anthems without turning them into empty anthems.
So this isn’t just about a concert.
“Last night wasn’t just another LCD show. It was a quiet celebration of 20 years of my love for music. For Gen X creators. For falling in love with my wife. For authenticity. And for one band that somehow made Daft Punk feel at home in my living room.”
Read more blog post from Pablo Herrera 👉🏽 here.
LCD Soundsystem. North American Scum. Knockdown Center. Queens, NYC. Video by Pablo Herrera.
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