Yeah I was at LCD Soundsystem's April 2nd, 2011 farewell concert. I actually reviewed it here and if you can't be bothered checking out the review let me be concise… I loved it! Here let me give you a taste: "Banks, of PCs, synths drum machines, back up singers, Murphy center stage screaming into the mic, and everything programmed, distilled, pre-determined, and yet still organic, human, loose. Impressive stuff and precisely why they are (were) a legendary band." Three and a half hours and while the middle sagged a little it was exactly what leader James Murphy said it would, a wake and a party of intense and immense proportions.
Unlike the movie, "Shut Up And Play The Hits"about the 48 hours before during and after the concert. James Murphy worries and mopes over his decision to fold the band which is essentially him any way, rehearses, sobs on family members shoulders, takes his dog out for a pee and generally rejects the rock star ethos in return for anonymity which he will no doubt get, and is interviewed by Chuck Klosterman, who New York Times "Ethicist" column I like a lot but who is a bit of a wiseguy here.
There is nothing about this movie that works very well. Directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace, the concert scenes take you right on stage, right into the middle of the action, and still suck. They keep on getting interrupted and no momentum really builds in those scenes and while you think a close and in your face concert footage would enhance that isn't true, it is too unusually, since it isn't the way we actually watch concerts, it is too weird.
But it is light years away from the rest of this mess. Murphy may be the least interesting rock star on earth. His conversation with Chuck is only interesting if you find nothing very interesting. It is all so silly and earnest, this nonsense about wanting fame and being afraid of it and making a mistake. It is like a sci fi movie gone wrong, it is just a big fat set up for nothing. LCD Soundsystem is DFA owner and band leader, singer, writer, whatever James Murphy. You can't quit yourself. He isn't the Beatles. As long as Murphy is alive he can reform the band instantaneously. Nothing is broken, nothing has changed, And if he decided to record as James Murphy, does he think people are so stupid they wouldn't say "ahhhh, LCD Soundsystem?" It is like having an existential crises about risking nothing. I don't know why Chuck is taking this nonsense seriously. I'd have told James to have a shave, lose a coupla pounds and stop fucking whining.
Grade: C