LCD Soundsystem On Film: 'Shut Up and Play the Hits'
Sometime after their 2005 debut album's release, LCD Soundsystem played a big hometown show at Bowery Ballroom, at which frontman James Murphy wryly announced to the enthusiastic crowd, "We are now officially over," seemingly referring satirically to his band's newly minted aboveground status. Not only was it a funny moment, in retrospect it indicated Murphy's keen sense of awareness about LCD's progress and their place in the world. With this in mind, it's a little easier to understand how he brought himself to pull the plug on the band in 2011. If you were a sentient being in New York during the lead-up to their big, blowout farewell concert at Madison Square Garden that April, you witnessed a firestorm of online arguments about everything from ticket price and availability to the breakup itself, but whichever side you took, there was no denying that the final LCD show was the hottest ticket in town.
Now the concert/documentary film Shut Up and Play the Hits offers all those who were there — and most importantly, the far greater numbers who weren't — the opportunity to focus in on that moment in time from both the outside (capturing the concert in all its sad-but-celebratory glory) and the inside (following Murphy around in the period leading up to the show). The movie's showings kick off with a series of Sundance screenings between January 22 and 28, but keep an eye peeled for what we optimistically imagine as an inevitable local run.
