LCD Soundsystem knows how to throw a party. The dance rock brainchild of 41-year-old James Murphy has been shaking things up for over 10 years, first in the form of house parties
9:13 p.m. The first song, “Dance Yrself Clean,” starts with a lone drum beat that doubles up on itself as Murphy mumbles the lyrics about how sick he is of the same thing happening every night. “Present company excluded,” he says in the song. Nice save.
9:17 p.m. The scent of pot is unmistakable.
9:18 p.m. Lights flash, synthesizers rock the arena, and what was almost a spoken-word performance suddenly turns into a dance party. The guy next to me starts writhing to the music. I don’t know this yet, but he won’t stop for nearly four hours.
9:23 p.m. People in panda costumes run through the aisles. A security guard follows after them.
9:31 p.m. There are 19,000 people at Madison Square Garden and every one of them is dancing. People are jumping, slamming, head-bobbing, and swaying. One guy on the ground floor is wearing a suit jacket adorned with flashing lights. That’s got to be annoying for the people sitting behind him.
9:50 p.m. An empty panda suit flies through the audience.
10:03 p.m. We’re one hour into the concert and Murphy announces that the band needs a quick break. They’re back less than five minutes later. The frenetic keyboard starts for “All My Friends,” and the entire arena cheers. This is one of the band’s most popular songs. When it came out in 2007, it was listed on nearly every official “best of” list, including TIME’s. But it never even made it onto the charts.
10:07 p.m. The guy next to me is having trouble figuring out how to dance and text his friend at the same time.
10:14 p.m. James Murphy’s brother, Tom, is introduced to the audience. His sister and her kids are also there somewhere. All things considered, this is a pretty awesome family outing; my family just goes out to dinner.
10:23 p.m. Is that Reggie Watts? The musically inclined comedian appears on stage to add some groove to a sample from “45:33,” the 45-minute long track that Murphy released in 2006 and that I have only listened to once because, well, it’s 45 minutes long.
See photos of Pitchfork performers rocking out.
