LCD Soundsystem / M.I.A. (The Fillmore, 14 May 2005)

I have to admit, I didn't think much of M.I.A. or LCD Soundsystem when their albums came out. Both groups received a lot of pre-album press and hype which I thought, at that time, was a bit overblown. M.I.A.'s sound is a bit odd when first listening because it's very . . . I don't know . . . British Pakistani? Kind of like The Streets where the spoken word bit throws me off since I'm just used to rap where there is a melody and the person is rapping with the melody rather than doing spoken word. Same thing with LCD Soundsystem. I got their album and wasn't too into it other than for "Daft Punk is Playing in My House."

But, with all things, I kept on listening to these artists and I began to like them. So much so that I had to see if their live performances were any good.

M.I.A. came on around 9:30 and started off with a hilarious mini film about our dumb ass President and Prime Minister Tony Blair in a press conference. I caught the tail end of it, but even that part was hilarious where the President was tongue tied and Tony Blair had to step in. This was real footage, albeit edited for comedy purposes.

M.I.A.'s set was terribly short - only 30 minutes. Granted, she doesn't have much stuff, but I expected something much longer. They started right off the bat with "Pull Up the People" which drove the crowd mad. Throughout the set, M.I.A. engaged the crowd great with her hand movements and this dance that is akin to slapping someone in the arse. It was pretty hilarious! Cherry, M.I.A.'s sidekick, was just tremendous! Very talented and she can sing. She can actually do her own thing if she really wanted to. Finally, Diplo was on the turntables mixing it up for the crowd and keeping it lively for M.I.A.

Diplo chose to make most of the sounds in the live show from the infamous Piracy Funds Terrorism CD. For example, in parts of "Bingo," that familiar whistle sound was in there. I forgot which rapper actually has that sound in their album. Another one is starting off "China Girl" with the Eurythmic's "Sweet Dreams." It was very good and the crowd ate it up.

Diplo mixed things up really well and M.I.A. and Cherry just engaged the crowd. At one point, M.I.A. and Diplo were giving shout outs to the different cities in the Bay Area, such as San Francisco and Oakland. When pressed for a third city, Diplo said, "I don't know. Berkeley?" which got a huge applause. Although the set was really short, they played a good chunk of M.I.A.'s Arular such as "Galang," "Sun Shower," and "Fire Fire." All of which were brilliantly played.

After a 45 minute wait, LCD Soundsystem came on. Mr. DFA himself was present and his band really surprised me. The beats that they belted out gave me the biggest mindfuck - I didn't realize that they were that good. I found myself dancing and bobbing my head throughout LCD Soundsystem's set. They played "Daft Punk..." pretty early in the set with the crowd surprised at how early this song was. They wanted to cheer, but the sound from the percussions drowned them all out.

James Murphy can really belt them out. His rough voice was the perfect accomniment for the booming noise emitted by the other members. "Tribulations" is my favourite song on the album and my favourite song that they played live. It got me dancing hard core, and others around me were doing the same. From "Tribulations" on, LCD Soundsystem simply blew me away with their booming sound and the constant banging of the cowbell. Sometimes, their songs sounded a lot like the Rapture - so much so that I thought every song was "House of Jealous Lovers."

I think the songs that followed "Tribultaions" included "Movement." I forgot what the other ones were.

They also did a cover of Souxsie Sioux's "Slowdive." I've never heard of this song, but their rendition of it didn't sound too great.

Otherwise, banging, banging and banging percussions, complete with cow bell and congo drums.

Overall, a great bill. It was if I picked this line up too!

M.I.A. = 1.5 Beers
LCD Soundsystem: 1.75 Beers