May 20, 2005
LCD Soundsystem Concert Review by Music Blogger Kei Watanabe

USOUNDS has been published around the world, online and off, for several decades. We recently heard about an exciting new medium called "music blogging" and are rushing to embrace it. With that in mind, we converted our graphic designer, Kei, to full time music blogger. Here is his first effort, we hope you enjoy -- ED

May 13, 2005
What a day. I spent 2 hours drawing up a sweet new citroen graphic for "Citroen of the Month," only to have Chaz reject it as "too ghey". Drunken ass. In any case, the day was not totally ruined because I downloaded an insanely good mix from Jena Paradies. It's called Kuntsform de Natur, and features Sender Berlin, the MFA, Heiko Laux and more. If you like dance/house music of any kind, you should download it now...

Posted by Kei at 19:22

May 15, 2005

Woke up late and felt tired from a crazy night at Little Pedro's Blue Bongo Room LA's best nightspot. Anyway, I was revived when I remembered that it was LCD Soundsystem day! Hooray! I had wanted to see them live for a long time. When I got to the show I was pleased to figure out that USOUNDS had gotten me into the VIP balcony. Well, the balcony didn't have the best view but the bar lines were a lot shorter. When I was up there I was trying to figure out, what does a music blogger do to review a show? Then suddenly two girls elbowed me out of the way and grabbed a guy with a light beard.


I spied many beautiful ladies at the show

"Excuse me, aren't you the Music Blogger of Music for Robots? " One of the girls said. My ear pricked up. A real music blogger was in the audience with me! Would he figure out my secret, that I was just a humble graphic designer and didn't know much about blogging (or music, for that matter)? I tried to listen in so I could pick up some tips...

"Why, yes I am," he said smoothly.
"Oh, well we work for the Label and just wanted to let you know how much we love your site, it's Amazing! And you're such a good writer, and your music taste is excellent..." She then proceeded to touch his arm and rub it a little. I started to think this whole blogging thing was alright, chicks totally come on to you! But this guy played it cool, kind of nodded and said thanks, and moved back to his position overlooking the crowd. I wondered what was up, and then I saw-- he was already with some totally hot girl! Damn, this guy had it all figured out! I was making mental notes like crazy about what kind of blogger I wanted to be-- tall, dark, mysterious, and with a hot chick in the VIP section of hot bands' concerts.

Just then the music came up so I ran downstairs to be part of the action. The show was amazing, LCD rocked that venue so hard, every single track had the crowd dancing like maniacs, in unison. The sound was crisp and fresh, you could feel the bass Hz rumbling in your loins just like it should. The biggest crowd reaction was for the two radio hits "Tribulations" and "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House" as well as the classic "Yeah" song. James Murphy put on quite a performance, which I was not expecting. He banged drums, played a tambourine, and just generally rocked out in a totally unpretentious, excited way. It was a joy to watch and the crowd got a huge kick out his stage antics. During the middle of the set, they got into some more hardcore agro guitar stuff and a circle pit actually opened up on the floor!


Tambourine Man

I haven't seen a circle pit at this kind of concert in a long, long time so I was pretty excited, as you can imagine. Circle pits are very rare at non-Punk shows in Los Angeles, and to me it signified that instead of the usual hipster geezers who show up at non-mainstream shows in LA, LCD is actually attracting a young audience, which is great. The whole night was energizing because of the music, the crowd, etc. I even saw the Cobra Snake (his photos accompany this blog post) and gave him a special Cobra greeting that only true Cobras know.


LCD brought out Junior Hipsters, not just the old creaky ones

Anyway the show just plain rocked, perfect sound, perfect songs (except for Disco Infiltrator which was my fave from the album) and just a ton of fun, from the VIP Music Blogger section to dance-all-night stagefront. If you get a chance to see LCD live, do it. As for music blogging, it's a lot of work. This post took me 4 days to do so I don't know how good at music blogging I'm going to be. But I'll do my best and one day I'll be the one rocking the shows with hot ladies hanging on my every link. Peace.


Backstage

Posted by Kei at 19:22


PHOTOS BY THECOBRASNAKE

Posted by usounds at May 20, 2005 01:58 AM

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