LCD Soundsystem @ Red Rocks, August 15

The most intricate stage setup I’ve ever seen. But there’s no set or anything. Just two drum sets, three keyboards, two guitars, and more modular synths and speakers than you can count. A massive disco ball hangs above it all, begging to be illuminated by the panel of lights being slowly lowered down at the back of the stage. 

The lights go out, and then come back on with the band onstage. Eight people total by the way. A soft pink lights up the band as the familiar twinkle of oh baby fills the amphitheater. It all becomes more real as the kick drum comes in, and then wow. As the homey, gut-punching beats of the synths begin, the stage explodes in the warm, white light of that panel at the back of the stage. Each and every drum beat, synth, chord, and lyric radiate off of the boulders surrounding us. And when the beat drops, it feels like the whole world lights up, the disco ball reflects the light, slowly turning as the music continues on.

As the show continued, each and every element of the experience gets brought to the forefront at some point throughout the night. At least in my eyes it did. The stage setup was an obvious one, but it continued to fascinate me throughout the night. For an electronic artist, using little to no backing tracks for support these days is rare. But each and every sound, no matter how minute it may seem on its own, is made live onstage to bring each song to life with a newfound depth that just can’t be heard on the studio recordings. The rawness of the live vocals, the distinct individual sounds from each guitar, each keyboard, and each drum beat, as well as James Murphy’s added ramblings and chats during intros, outros, and between songs.

While crowd interaction and between-song chats were kept to a minimum due to curfew, each felt intentional and personal. Happy birthdays were issued to one of the members of the band, we were greeted, welcomed in, and made to feel at home, but that was all. Nothing extraordinary, but that wasn’t needed, because the rest of the show waited ahead. 

Each and every song played was perfectly placed within the setlist, and allowed for the mood to ebb and flow throughout the nearly two and a half hour-long set (see full set here). And though they moved between songs from their most recent release directly into tracks they released over 20 years ago, their sound is so distinct and prominent that it all just feels right together, regardless of the continuous development of their sound since the founding of the band. That was part of what made the transitions between songs like Movement and I Can Change or North American Scum and Dance Yrself Clean so rich and so perfect. (It also helped that they played every song I had hoped for..)

The entire show was so detail-oriented, from the perfect use of the disco ball, to the perfect setlist, to the incredibleuse of the tv screens on either side of the stage. These weren’t just used to get a closer look at what was happening on stage, though that was cool to see, but they used them to create a secondary visual experience. The onstage footage was chopped up, overlayed with other shots, stretched, slowed, and mashed up into the most incredible collage of video that not just existed parallel to the show, but enhanced it, turning it from a concert into a visual-audio experience. 

My personal experience was also enhanced by my friends choosing to sit in the dirt and take off our shoes below one of the trees on the outskirts of the amphitheater. This was the most perfect location to feel the music coursing through our bodies and out of our fingers and toes and dance to each and every song played that night. I was also there with two of my friends from dance, which means we were dancing dancing. Like contemporary warm-up during the openers, full out, full body movement. To hear live music is one of life’s greatest pleasures, and getting to fully embody the music as it consumes the space around you is so extremely fulfilling. 

It would be hard to talk about this show without detailing the absolutely insane encore we got to experience. After an incredibly brief break after Home, the intro to Get Innocuous! echoed out into the crowd, pulling everyone back onto their feet to continue their nonstop dancing. The party obviously didn’t stop after that, as we headed straight into x-ray eyes and then into North American Scum. And then it was Dannce Yrself Clean. 

This song was one of the main things that brought my friends and I to this show on this beautiful August night. If you know me (or maybe if you don’t), you know that this was my Fall 2025 Dance Workshop piece that I made with my best friend Beth. The entire creative process behind the piece was so incredibly dependent on developing new friendships, comfortability, and trust between our dancers, feeling the music in each and every part of your body as you move, and truly surrendering yourself to dance. Truly dancing yourself clean. Getting to share this song, hear that beat drop, and move to it with my best friends again, while in an amphitheater full of people doing the same thing? A sacred experience to say the least.

After I descended from the heavens back into Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado, New York, I Love You began. While terribly depressing, this song does have an incredible amount of wit to it, and during this show, we even moved from wit into the realm of humor, which not only says something about James Murphy and LCD Soundsystem, but about life. Oh my god it sucks sometimes, but introducing humor and joy, even in the smallest ways, is important and oh so valuable. That brings us to closing: All My Friends. This track really hits my last point home, because god, friendship is a beautiful thing, and hearing it in that setting was nearly religious to me. The lights, the music, the dirt under my bare feet, my friends, and so much love, under the stars. This is what life is all about!

How do you even sum up the most incredible show you’ve ever seen? I have been to dozens of concerts throughout my life, big and small, of every genre I’ve ever loved, and seen bands I’ve never heard of, but also heard my favorite artists dozens of times. But this show stood out to me above nearly all of those. It was unique, but not because they did anything crazy or had any tricks up their sleeves for us, but maybe because they didn’t have any of that. It was just the band playing the music we all love so much, from scratch, and doing it absolutely incredibly. The music filled every nook and cranny of this venue, powering the crowd to dance through the entire set (even after two fantastic openers!). The power of the music was oozing from every instrument and speaker on that stage, and was radiating out of each and every person in the audience. It truly was incredible.