LIVE REVIEW: LCD Soundsystem @ The Fillmore, 6/3/2010

Every so often a show rolls through town that puts the entire San Francisco bay area into a frenzy. Last night’s show at The Fillmore was that show. As I got out of my cab to go into the venue, there were masses of people trying to find an extra ticket because scouring Craigslist for the past few weeks has done nothing for them or their wallets. The double ticket of LCD Soundsystem and Holy Ghost! sold out within minutes of going on sale, and with threats of it being the last ever appearance by the headliners, people needed to get in.

Holy Ghost! started the night off and unfortunately sent a lot of the crowd to the bar. The studio project turned live band must still be getting used to performing to a crowd as their stage presence left a lot to be desired. Despite the lack luster performance, Holy Ghost! did deliver a quality set playing old and new tracks with a fuller, polished sound that was due to the full band.

The crowd impatiently waited for LCD Soundsystem saying things like “Good thing we can swim or we’d be drowning in a sea of hipsters” and “if their last album was a chick, I’d be banging it every night.” Once James Murphy and the rest of the band came on stage and starting playing “Us V Them,” the entire audience erupted with an energy that I have never seen at any Fillmore show before. This kinetic energy was shared by the band, who performed on high for two hours.

Running the gamut of the catalog with old favorites like “Yeah” amongst new songs off their latest album This is Happening, all with James Murphy’s undeniable charismatic anecdotes and revelations between songs . The overly packed venue was a complete disco dance party, especially when the guy next to me started some extreme fist pumping during “Pow Pow” that could have very well taken some people out. Even the over tired “Daft Punk is Playing in my House” sounded phenomenal. To close the night off, LCD played “New York I Love You” and even though we San Franciscans prefer songs about our own city, the morphing into a mini cover of Jay Z’s “Empire State of Mind” proved Murphy’s versatility and made the audience go insane.

While getting their posters and snagging a last minute apple, everybody walking out of the Fillmore was buzzing from excitement over what they had just seen. There is no doubt in my mind that everybody who witnessed this show will mark it as a concert experience of a lifetime.