LCD Soundsystem: Electric Picnic's finest act?

LCD Soundsystem    
Main Stage    

★★★★★

It’s rare to get this emotional about kit. But you’d have needed a heart of purest disconium not to watch James Murphy break down in a lock-up garage when LCD Soundsystem’s massed instruments were “retired”. Cluttering the mainstage, it’s a pleasure to see them again. The band too. And they’re happy to be back “for the four millionth time”, already advertising their return next year.

It’s tempting to consider them the great festival unifiers – dance for the rock kids, rock for the dance kids – but a five-year absence is a long stretch in the average kid’s lifetime. This feels more like a comeback tour for the negative equity generation. A discoball just slightly larger than a wrecking ball would dominate the stage if the musicianship wasn’t so divine. Murphy, besuited in virginal white, doesn’t just shut up and play the hits; he embellishes lyrics hilariously, pummels through agogo bell solos, and seems, somehow, finally, close to happiness. They play it all. They play it perfectly.

In Three Words:

All My Friends