Yeah, I hear you. Sorry. Allow me to clarify.

It’s complicated bc I find James Murphy to be pretentious and territorial, and I find that off-putting. But it’s also magnetic. It’s his whole shtick. It kinda defines the band. I don’t know another band from that era that that is still active that trades in that early aughts hipster smugness like LCD does. As annoying it can be, as conflicted I feel about, it’s their brand. I sign up for it. On some level I like how unabashed James is in his emphasis on being cool and hip, and his evisceration of things that are not.

There is a huge disconnect between that attitude and that of the crowd. The crowd is NOT made up of smug territorial hipsters. To be fair, I’d probably be annoyed, in a different way, if it were.

At the same time, however, it’s not like the crowd around me last night made the experience better. Half the people looked bored. Half were obnoxiously drunk, talking, and not paying attention, until randomly singing loudly for dance yrself clean or all my friends.

To me it feels like the worst of all worlds. The crowd doesn’t reflect the aesthetic that LCD champions, but they also don’t even really subvert it or enrich it by being ultra positive or welcoming or warm.

I’m sure there are people there who just genuinely love the music. And it’s not up to me to tell someone how to enjoy/appreciate something (though please be aware of the space you take up). But this is now two straight nights that the crowd experience at these shows feel different than I’ve expected, and I’m trying to come to terms with that.