Best Moments, Christina Aguilera & Beyond

“North American Scoundrel” is the White Whale of LCD Soundsystem Setlists, the band plays 2007 The voice of silver Less explosion than fans (strengthen hands). (In fact, LCDs don’t seem to be playing between 2011 and 2024, although to be fair, they’re also between 2011 and 2016.)

So it was really exciting when they kept the song very early on the main stage. Maybe it’s a projection too, but the lyrics – “Oh, I don’t know, I don’t know, oh, where to start / we are North Americans / Finally, make the same mistake again, again / North American, North American” – surely feels like a comment on the sad and confusing current affairs in the United States

In fact, it requires a degree of separation, reality and/or psychological gymnastics shutdown with your friends dancing on the festival while hockey agents roam the streets, the environment continues to collapse, mass shootings continue, public figures being assassinated, income inequality, censorship, depth, scrutiny of our civil liberties, our civil liberties community, we are our birth. It’s hard to be out of the crowd on weekends, and it’s unclear how many people canceled Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions a few days after Jimmy Kimmel temporarily paused the show. Attending any given music festival is a great privilege, and sometimes people feel introverted when things outside the door become so desperate. At the same time, what a satisfying relief it is to dance for a while.

James Murphy currently mourns a lot in the United States, aptly saying, “I don’t know, I don’t know, oh, where to start.” But the beauty of LCD suits is not only one of the best live performances of a generation, but also because of the intellectual and emotional weight of their music. You can dance, you can cry, and do it throughout the show, as the group makes a weird tear in the tasks of “Home” and “Dance” and “Dance” and “Great Man”, “Love, Lost” and “Great Man”.

The song felt especially apt on Saturday given that the dance world lost a giant over the weekend, with the announcement coming earlier in the day that Keith McIver of legendary Scottish duo Optimo (Espacio) had died from brain cancer at age 57. Murphy honored McIver during the show, saying the band had lost a friend while wearing a yellow T-shirt declaring “No DFA Without Optimo,” a reference to the cruel influence the duo had on Murphy’s Legend DFA tag.