This Shit Is Bananas

May 16, 2005


BBQ season officially began this past weekend in Los Angeles, and with the smell of chlorine from a Sherman Oaks swimming pool still on our skin, we headed to the El Rey Theatre for the MIA and LCD Soundsystem show.


We realize we talk about MIA a lot on this site (this is the seventh blog mention by our count), but seriously folks, she continues to murder it. In the three months since her last LA club date, ol' girl's stage confidence has blown up and her crowd control is wicked. Diplo, Cherry and the animated stencil projections are still in effect, but now there's a palatable feeling of the people not just being excited about her, but being excited right there alongside her. Tick…tick…boom.







Post-Maya, LCD Soundsystem set up a double-decker row of amps across the back of the stage and tore into the percussion onslaught of “Beat Construction”; James Murphy may look like a soundguy who, instead of Cheap Trick T-shirts, rocks Deth Killers Of Bushwick (We thought he was all about representing Manhattan?), but his shit is incredibly on point. The show was pretty much all on the dance party steez - drawing almost equally from the group's early singles and high BPM tracks from their self-titled debut - not giving the crowd a single chance for a sweaty comedown. Everyone always wants to talk about the cowbell with LCD, but what about all those damn tambourines? Or Tyler Pope on bass? Or Nancy mutherfuckering Wang? All of them annihilate.


Walking out of the venue, there was talk of celebrity sightings, including Courtney Love in the VIP section. But we wouldn't know anything about that. We were up front where folks were going for it.



Posted: May 16, 2005
This Shit Is Bananas