New Concert Series Drops Into NYC With LCD Soundsystem

Re:SET, the new national traveling concert series launched by AEG Presents earlier this month, finally made its New York City debut Friday, and it perfectly kicked off on Friday with the indie dance-punk band LCD Soundsystem.

In front of an overall packed crowd at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, the collective led by singer and founder James Murphy performed their best-known songs for nearly two hours got everyone jumping up and down and dancing. Earlier in the day, a brief rain threatened to dampen the proceedings but fortunately subsided by the time the event started in the mid-afternoon.

In a way, LCD Soundsystem’s show from Friday was a homecoming for the band as they formed in Brooklyn in 2002 by Murphy, who also founded DFA Records; their sound is likened to a number of different influences: post-punk, post-disco, electronic pop, Talking Heads, Devo, New Order and Kraftwerk. Alongside such acts as the Strokes, the National, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Interpol, LCD Soundsystem were part of the post-punk revival of the early 2000s that was later documented in Lizzy Goodman’s book Meet Me in the Bathroom. After a split in 2011, the group reemerged four years later and has played ever since.

Dressed in white, Murphy led his band through a back catalog of hits and favorites spanning their career, kicking off with Get Innocuous and through such generally energetic numbers like “You Wanted a Hit,” “I Can Change,” “new body rhumba” and “Tribulations.” Of course, they performed their almost-ballad-laden anthem “New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down” – perhaps the indie rock equivalent to Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind” – before bringing down the house with “Dance Yrself Clean” and “All My Friends.” Though the show was technically nearly two hours, it didn’t feel that way as practically everyone—including those in the seated areas of the stadium was dancing and jumping all throughout.

LCD is one of the headliners of this year’s Re:SET series, along with boygenius (who performed Saturday night at Forest Hills Stadium) and Steve Lacy (who will hit the same stage tonight). Launched on June 2, “each weekend will see three cities in the same region hosting, with each Re:SET headliner playing each city on consecutive days,” per the series’ website. The headliners also curated which acts would open for them on their respective performance days—in the case of LCD, those performers included L’Rain and IDLES.

The Re:SET concert series tour will continue through June 25.

Setlist

Get Innocuous!

I Can Change

You Wanted a Hit

Tribulations

Tonite

new body rhumba

Someone Great

Losing My Edge

No Love Lost (Joy Division cover) (With Adam Devonshire (IDLES))

New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down

Dance Yrself Clean

All My Friends