The Rapture + LCD Soundsystems + Erland Øye

Hot Hot Hype We already know who’s the realest (B.I.G., R.I.P.), but who’s the hypest? LCD Soundsystems? The Rapture? Opener Erlend Øye? This begs the question of what constitutes hype and whether hype is a good thing. Or not. Hype is that elusive, ephemeral and almost always unfulfilled expectation of awesomeness. Schrödinger and any good post-modernist would love hype. It disappears if you look at it too closely, smiling at you knowingly as it vanishes. And if it manages to survive the observation-induced collapse, it is destroyed by what follows it. But what really matters is that LCD Soundsystems rocked and so did the Rapture. And while Erlend Øye may not have rocked, I don’t think it was because he couldn’t. Øye peppered his carefully crafted set with patter that both reprimanded and thanked the audience. He admonished the chattering crowd of scenesters to stop distracting him with the perfect syntax only a non-native speaker could have. Later, he expressed his gratitude to the early-arriving smokers who would suffer through hours without a nicotine fix just to see him. His almost entirely acoustic set merely laid the coals for what was to burn later. Lest you think the Norwegian got the short end of the stick opening for New York favorites LCD Soundsystems and the Rapture, a friend whose taste is so good that he’s the creative director at a men’s magazine with a two-letter name came to see Øye. The DFA superstars were mere icing for my cake-hungry friend. I’m glad my buddy’s appetite was satisfied, but Øye’s acoustic sweetness only whetted mine. More aspartame than sugar cane may work for fellow Scandinavians ABBA, but this approach is not as well-suited to the guitarist singer-songwriter. Still, lyrics rich with popular culture references as mainstream as Harry Potter made for clever songs that stood above the standard angst-ridden product of his peers. He’s kind of like an international Cat Stevens, before Stevens converted to Islam and became Yusuf Islam. Øye ended things on an uptempo note with a dancey track played through the PA. He sang along and danced in an appealingly awkward way as he talked the audience through the song’s breakdowns. Øye even encouraged the soundman to bring up the volume and bass in key parts. The contrast of Øye’s set with the evening’s main event was not unwelcome, but ultimately was too stark. Next up were the more troublesome LCD Soundsystems. James Murphy, co-pilot of the hyped DFA label and member of long-defunct but recently very influential Speedking, ran the show despite his accompanists being highly proficient players. As the projection screen put in place between sets to provide cover came up, the drummer picked up the beat of the DJ’s set. The drummer continued to hammer along as frontman and svengali James Murphy ended the DJ set with a wave of his hand and began his set with another wave. In came the bassist, the keyboardist, and percussionist. When not singing, Murphy reinforced the heavy rhythms with not one, but two tambourines, and at times switched to not a single, but a double cowbell. LCD Soundsystems ripped through all six songs of their repertoire, ending with smash hit “Losing My Edge”. Watching Murphy articulate a tender blend of superiority, irony, and anger helped this ironic club banger make much more sense live. Murphy even gestured towards the VIP balcony section, where the headliners and Murphy’s peers sat, as he spit the lyric “I’m losing my edge to all the kids in their little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered ’80s,” proof that nothing is sacred, including the bands on his own label. Were they scalded by Murphy’s seething, white-hot lyrics? Are they in on the joke? Is it a joke? Does it really matter since the song is so fucking danceable? ”Losing My Edge” finishes with a list. Murphy loves lists, just as all good music nerds do. He is hipper than you, knows more music than you, and isn’t afraid to name-check it all just to prove it. But his list was pretty heavy on seminal ’70s and ’80s acts, and he lost traction very quickly as he crossed over to jazz, hip-hop, and old electro. Still, he points to some pretty good starting points for anyone who really wants to be down. But, unsurprisingly, based on an informal, unscientific and statistically suspect survey of the audience, the hot girls just want to dance and only males with a weird Peter Pan complex care or know any of that stuff. Maybe Murphy is pissed at this disconnect and its impact on his ability to leverage his rock star status in normal ways. But LCD’s live show and the beat for “Losing My Edge” are so damn good that his music nerdiness probably isn’t impeding any attempts at rock star promiscuity. The projection screen dropped for the last time as the tech gnomes stoked the furnaces of hype for the main event. When it came back up, headliners, critics’ darlings, and dance rock superstars the Rapture began their amped-up set. Although the Rapture stuck almost exclusively to old material, electing not to expose material off their yet-to-be-released full-length, they inspired confidence that the wait will be worth it. Live, they live up to and exceed the hype with a performance better than any of their recordings. Clearly the heavy touring schedule and practicing is paying off. Three songs into the set, after building up nicely, the Rapture dropped the first instantly-identifiable crowd-pleaser, “Out of the Races and Onto the Tracks” off their Sub Pop EP. The dissonant, descending guitar riff loped along and was joined by a rolling bass line. The audience instantly responded, and the energy carried. The only low point came when the band forgot they are dance rock band, and did straight up dance (no rock) songs, relying on nothing more than a synth and its lame preset sounds. To the Rapture’s credit they elected to program their own beats and did not fall back on the venerable Bossa Nova 2. But they have a real rhythm section, and it rocks. So use them! Drummer Vito Roccoforte is the next Dave Grohl. He radiated so much charisma as he bounced around behind his kit at the back of the stage that he almost outshined lead vocalist and guitarist Luke Jenner. And bassist Matt Safer has a goofy charm backed up by great chops and even better tone. Other synth-heavy excursions were better balanced and did not disappoint. Floater Gabriel Andruzzi focused on percussion duties and occasionally seasoned songs with soaring saxophone lines. Andruzzi’s horn parts are simple and cleanly played, fitting well with the Rapture’s punk sensibilities. DFA release and giant underground hit “House of Jealous Lovers” wrapped up the set. Then off the Rapture went, only to return for the obligatory headliner’s encore. Dubbed-out bits and a mathy, thrashy percussive crescendo saved the second and truly final song from being nothing more than a “House of Jealous Lovers” redux. The evening was filled with great performances, each proving in its own way that baseless and hype are not interchangeable words when used to describe new music. They satisfied fickle tastemakers prone to moving on as soon as they are spotted in the crowd and the crowd that always follows close on their heels.