Charlottesville - LCD Soundsystem commands a wholly awesome presence on the stage.  Their sheer energy and overwhelming spatial existence waves over the crowd from the front of the pit to the back of the lawn.  Their multi-genre encompassing sound draws eclectic crowds across the world, as the play sold out shows and headline festivals both at home and abroad.  Their MySpace page categorizes them as “Punk/Funk/Disco House,” but one also catches glimpses Depeche Mode, David Bowie and Daft Punk mixed together and spiked with a powerful tincture of absinthe.

At its heart, LCD Soundsystem is the child of James Murphy; he writes the music and records the studio albums himself, relying on an immense cadre of instruments, recording loops and impressive DJ skills.  The live band adds seven members, and while Murphy remains the frontman during concerts, his primary role becomes that of singer and composer.  His lyrics and singing style - in fact, his entire aura as a vocalist - evokes David Byrne and the Talking Heads' highly driven synthesis of 80s music with a penchant for cocaine abuse.  The result is like watching one man play seven other musicians as if they were his own instruments, trance-like one moment and jumping around, unable to contain themselves in the next.

LCD played the Charlottesville Pavilion on October 2, 2010, and even though the show landed smack in the beginning of an oncoming winter high in the mountains, the crowd was impressive in size, energetic, and composed of music lovers from hippies to hipsters, punks to preps, young and old alike.  They opened with “Dance Yrself Clean” from their third album This Is Happening.  The song starts slow with a prominent percussion line, relying on vocals and minimalist instrumentals while the song builds, and then BOOM!  The lights flash hard as the whole band joins in, each adding their own piece to the number, transforming it into a heavy jump up and down ballad.  Between each song the band will often shift, adorning new instruments or switching with a fellow band member.  Before long the set has reached “Daft Punk is Playing at my House”, a song with repetitive lyrics and a heavy influence from the musical group from which it is named.  Unlike most bands with strong electronic persuasion, LCD has opted out of using more intricate synthesizers that can handle larger functions and produce wider ranges of sounds.  Instead, they chose a more analog approach using large mixing boards and pedals, something that Pink Floyd might have created at the beginning of an era but still masters the most divine noises.  The band then reaches the moment that the crowd has been itching and jonesing for, their mega-hit “All My Friends.”  The song starts with a crisp piano line and then drops into a catchy percussion and bass section.  The number speaks to the audience, retelling the story of the party, any party, your party.  Murphy sings of the friendships forged and bad decisions made as the sun rises, ultimately stating that the lives we lead should produce experience and not regret.  The band relates impeccably to its crowd, and their emotional attachment is apparent as they scream the lyrics back till their voices are hoarse and dance until they are dripping in sweat and gasping for breath.  The result is apotheosis.

The rest of the concert continues at the same driven pace.  Eleven songs are played with an additional three for an encore.  The band and audience are spent.  To demand more would be like an amphetamine-driven kamikaze dive.  The pavilion is sweating, breathing the fumes from its night with one of the most exhilarating groups on the music scene.  Their sound is neither modern nor antiquated, but both; they posses the intimate knowledge of rock gods and computer geniuses.  The crowd’s transformation is complete, and as they stagger home it will be many days before they can hear anything but the heartbeat of LCD Soundsytem in their heads.

By Photojournalist: James Young

James has been an avid music enthusiast and photographer since childhood.  At age nine, he attended his first concert with his parents, seeing Phil Collins at the Sky Dome in Toronto.  He would consistently be found playing in his father's darkroom, but has received little formal training in his art.  For James, the fusion of photography and music occurred after leaving college to tour extensively across the country.  James has returned to Richmond to finish his degree in Political Science and is an active force in the music scene.  The beginnings of his comprehensive library of local and national acts can be found on his website: RichmondImage.com.

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