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Photograph by Jon Wilde
“I have good news and bad news,” James Murphy said as LCD Soundsystem took the stage for the first time in over two years last night in Brooklyn. “The good news is, we’re here. The bad news is, I’m wasted.” No no, dude — that’s the great news. The New York punk-funk heavyweights have an early single-of-the-year contender with the irresistible rock anthem “Drunk Girls,” but it’s a totally different song when several hundred drunk girls are there screaming along. Though Murphy kept cautioning the sweat-drenched crowd at Music Hall of Williamsburg that this triumphant hometown gig was more a rehearsal than a show (”This is you trusting us and us trying to work out being a band again”), the seven-piece band didn’t sound rusty at all — they attacked each electro-funk workout like a pit bull on a porkchop. In 2007, LCD Soundsystem were the planet’s most ferocious live band — yet in the past three years they’ve just gotten better. Lord help us all.

Singer/producer/tai chi madman James Murphy was coasting on adrenaline all night — plus, as he admitted, his signature tipple of champagne and whiskey. The band did only two songs from their upcoming and even-awesomer-than-everyone-hoped This Is Happening, which comes out on May 18th: “Drunk Girls” (”Drunk boys like to steal from the cupboards / Drunk girls like to file complaints” — true that) and “I Can Change,” which sounds like Brian Eno taking Ecstasy on the beach with Morrissey and Depeche Mode. Drummer Pat Mahoney and bassist Tyler Pope were on fire, while synth wizard Nancy Whang had some choice words for the dudes trying to slamdance into people: “Look at the two people on either side of you. If one of them is not a girl, you are dancing incorrectly.”

LCD Soundsystem revisited club classics like “Daft Punk Is Playing at My House,” “Yr City’s A Sucker” (”my city’s a freak”), “Someone Great” and the epic “All My Friends,” a song that always turns any room into a boozy Irish wake. But the sentimental highlight was the 2002 single “Losing My Edge,” which Murphy said the band hadn’t played in five years. “I’m 40 now,” he explained. “That means every band I saw had Fishbone opening up.” The band vamped as Murphy ran through his sardonic bitter-hipster rant, updating the lyrics to make fun of bands with Macbooks. The whole crowd chanted along when he yelled the namecheck for Seventies jazz-funk poet Gil-Scott Heron. It was as funny as ever, but also bittersweet, because (as we all now know), around the time Murphy wrote the song, Heron was a prisoner in Rikers Island on cocaine charges. In 2010, not only is Heron a free man — he’s making indie rock records. In other words, the whole freaking world is turning into an LCD Soundsystem song. Which is great news for the drunk girl in all of us.

Set List:

“Yr City’s a Sucker”
“Us V. Them”
“Drunk Girls”
“Losing My Edge”
“All My Friends”
“I Can Change”
“Tribulations”
“Movement”
“Yeah”

Encore:
“Someone Great”
“Daft Punk Is Playing At My House”
“New York I Love You”

Related Stories:

• James Murphy Opens Up About “Crazy” May LCD Soundsystem LP
• LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy on Scoring His First Soundtrack for Greenberg
• LCD Soundsystem Reveal Cover for May 18th LP This Is Happening

Photo: Elsa/Getty Images Sport

Play ball! Baseball’s Opening Day is full of time-honored traditions: the President throws out the first ball, the Cubs’ starting pitcher walks away with a 54.00 ERA, the Royals get mathematically eliminated from the pennant race. But the best tradition of all? Music. The 2010 season officially kicked off Sunday night at Fenway Park, as the Red
Sox battled the Yankees. It was definitely a memorable game, yet it was the surprise musical guests who got us all excited for a summer of sun, sweat, the crack of the bat, and the crack of whoever did Steven Tyler’s hair extensions. So now that the season is fully underway, let’s break it down: Who rocked Opening Day hardest?

DR. DRE: What the hell was he doing in a Red Sox uniform? Taking batting practice, to promote the Red Sox version of his popular “Beats By Dre” headphones. He also announced (big drumroll) that he plans on maybe finally releasing something from Detox someday. (Shouldn’t you be in the studio, Doctor? The Red Sox have won two World Series since your last album!) Considering how he used to rhyme about the chrome on the side of his White Sox hat, it’s odd that he’s ditched the ChiSox cap for a town whose most famous rappers were Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. And shouldn’t he be rooting for the AL West? You know, “California knows how to party” and all? Whatever happened to “It’s all good from Diego to the Bay”? Ah well, Boston’s glad to have him. (Throw it up, Dorchester! Shake it, Revere Beach! Where you at, North Quincy?) And it was hilarious to see him watch the whole game with LeBron James in the luxury box, still wearing his Sox uniform.

STEVEN TYLER: A surprise guest for the seventh-inning stretch. He looked great, in his first high-profile public appearance since rehab. Unfortunately, he sang “God Bless America,” a turkey no matter who sings it. (”White with foam?” Who wants to hear Tyler sing about anything white with foam?) It was sad when he sang the final words, “Home sweet home,” because it sounded like Aerosmith’s classic “Last Child,” which is not only an infinitely better song about America but a reminder that he needs Joe Perry there at his side.

These two need to patch it up pronto, because it’s a fact: Whenever Aerosmith breaks up, the Sox lose. It’s kind of uncanny how close their fortunes are linked. Both flourished in the 1970s (the summer of ‘75 belonged to “Walk This Way” and Freddie Lynn’s MVP season). Both crashed after 1978 — the Sox management’s decision to let Luis Tiant go was almost as inexplicable as Aerosmith’s decision to release Night in the Ruts. Both sucked for most of the Eighties: The Red Sox traded Dennis Eckersley for Bill Buckner right around the time Aerosmith put Stonehenge on an album cover. And both fell apart last summer. Only a true Perry/Tyler reunion can put the Sox back in the saddle.

(Fun fact: The last time I saw Tyler at Fenway, it was when the Stones played there in the summer of 2005. As he got out of his limo, these wizened groupies outside the park screamed “It’s Miiiick!” Tyler, always a good sport, waved to them anyway.)

NEIL DIAMOND: The musical winner of the game — he had the crowd right in his pocket. Okay, so maybe “Sweet Caroline” isn’t Steel Neil’s finest moment. (That would be “I Am. . . I Said” or “If You Know What I Mean” or “Brother Love” or hell, maybe “Crunchy Granola Suite”?) But it beats the living crap out of “God Bless America.” Neil’s Sox cap, random dancing, and utter disregard for the melody was primo entertainment, demonstrating why the Jewish Elvis has always been popular with New England’s drunken Irish masses since long before Fenway Park adopted “Sweet Caroline.” And Mr. Brooklyn Roads was rocking a “Keep the Dodgers in Brooklyn” jacket. Now *that* is a star. If Neil Diamond is any sign of the future — and he always is — this is going to be the best summer ever.

Also: Scott Schoeneweis, the Red Sox reliever who finished the fifth inning? Kind of looks like the dude from Fleet Foxes. Beardo respect!

Photo: Michael Ochs Archive/Getty

Classic Alex Chilton live moment: 1987, long after midnight, a sleazy rock bar in Roanoke, Virginia. When the man strikes up his best-loved song, the Big Star classic “September Gurls,” some drunk idiot celebrates by throwing a bottle that hits the guitar. Chilton cuts the song dead right at the syllable “Sep—” and snarls, “If I catch the motherfucker who threw that bottle, I’m gonna kill him.” Then, to the band: “OK, on D. One. Two.” They pick it up without missing a beat: “Teeeehm-ber gurls…” A perfect summary of Alex Chilton’s mix of Southern charm and evil charisma.

Alex Chilton, who died Thursday of a heart attack at 59, was one of the all-time great rock & roll songwriters, and the ultimate indie cult hero. He also had one of the strangest careers in American music. At the age of 16, he sang a huge pop hit that’s enjoyed radio rotation ever since, the Box Top’s “The Letter.” But he left the middle of the road for one head-scratching move after another: the Memphis guitar band Big Star, a string of sloppy garage-punk records with titles such as Like Flies On Sherbert and Dusted In Memphis, then an embrace of New Orleans R&B and lounge standards. He famously dropped out in the 1980s to wash dishes in New Orleans. In the 2000s, he toured with the Box Tops and Big Star, never talking to journalists or revealing anything about his private life. The only time I ever attempted to interview him, backstage after a solo show, he just snickered, “I have to rest my voice” — a strange claim, since he was smoking a dubious hand-rolled cigarette the size of his head. But he said everything he had to say in his music.

Everybody has a different favorite Alex Chilton. But mine will always be Big Star. They made three albums in the 1970s: #1 Record (the “catchy pop” one), Radio City (the “twisted Beatle obsessions” one) and Sister Lovers (the “late-night emotional breakdown” one). Chilton’s high, bittersweet voice was full of pain and yearning, even when the chiming Rickenbacker guitars were pure teenage kicks. He sang the acoustic ballad “Thirteen,” probably the most obscure oddity to make Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (it came in at Number 396), along with other gems like “September Gurls,” “Life Is White,” and “Night Time.” He could take a song as dark and fearful as “Blue Moon” and made it sound romantic, crooning, “If demons come, while you’re under… / I’ll be the blue moon in the dark.”

Nobody bought these albums at the time, and radio wouldn’t touch them, but all three became classics. Big Star invented a vision of bohemian rock & roll cool that had nothing to do with New York, Los Angeles or London, which made them completely out of style in the 1970s, but also made them an inspiration to generations of weird Southern kids. Especially girls — for hipster gals who couldn’t necessarily relate to the abrasive machismo of Lou Reed or Iggy Pop, Alex Chilton was a dude who let female fans hear themselves in his music. Nobody was ever better at making Southern girls feel cool.

Like so many other Eighties kids, I first heard of Big Star because R.E.M.’s Peter Buck kept mentioning them in interviews. The Bangles did a cover of “September Gurls,” and the Replacements did the tribute “Alex Chilton,” but it was R.E.M. who really set the table for Chilton’s late-’80s surge in popularity, a moment captured in last year’s movie Adventureland. The scene where Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg bond over “I’m in Love With A Girl” is a completely accurate picture of how it felt to discover Big Star in the Eighties, at a time when “indie rock” didn’t even have a name yet.

Alex Chilton never seemed to have much interest in his career. He refused to milk the Big Star resurgence — by then, he was exploring a whole new sound, the lazy R&B raunch of records like High Priest. He was hilariously surly to fans requesting Big Star oldies. At a summer ‘88 show in New Haven, where some guy up front kept yelling for “Oh My Soul,” Alex just sneered, “Sorry — I don’t think this particular band has the capability to play that particular song.” Any time he faced the camera, he gave a mean glare and clenched his shoulders like a fighter. Despite years of hard living, he always seemed indestructible — and thanks to his music, he always will be.

Note: I didn’t witness that show in Roanoke. I heard about it from a Virginia girl I met in a bar, when the bartender put on Radio City. We both recognized the album, so we traded stories about Chilton shows we’d seen. A couple years later, we played Big Star’s “Thirteen” as the first dance at our wedding. Thank you for everything, Alex Chilton. You will always be the blue moon in the dark.

More on Alex Chilton:

• Big Star Rock “#1 Record,” “Radio City” Classics at Rare NYC Gig
• Alex Chilton Set to Go
• Big Star Travel “Space”
• Big Star Album Reviews

Photo: Mazur/AMA 2009/WireImage
Oh, Adam — that was nutballs. If there was any worry Adam Lambert was going to tone down his wild glam-rock side, the American Idol star shattered it in his debut performance of “For Your Entertainment” at the American Music Awards. Glambert didn’t show any skin last night. He did, however, grab a leather dude’s head and grind it into his crotch, shortly after leading his gimp across the stage on a leash. (ABC cut the audio, maybe because Adam’s moans were too much for us to take?) It was a full-frontal Glambgasm, in the style of his slutty David Bowie medley on last summer’s Idol tour, moving his hips like six kinds of yeah and moaning “Can you handle what I’m ‘bout to do?” Now that’s Glambertainment!

See photos of the AMAs Glambglory plus more from the big show.

Adam strutted around the stage with a cane and a shoulder-padded black suit, looking uncannily like Bowie doing “Young Americans” on The Dick Cavett Show in 1974, except with a Heat Miser pompadour and buckets of eyeliner. And those severe-tire-damage spikes on the right shoulder were excellent. He spent the whole performance writhing and sucking face with his back-up dancers, some male, some female, none wearing all that much besides complicated underwear. Paula Abdul must have been proud to see the choreography pay homage to her “Cold Hearted” video from back in the day, except it was a wise move for Adam to keep walking up and down staircases, since his “Feelin’ Good” performance proved this man can handle some stairs.

Lambert’s best Idol performances: the glam-rock sex god in photos.

Glambskanks everywhere thrilled to hear him hit those falsetto eruptions at the end, especially since his voice was muffled for most of the song. We didn’t get to hear much of his vocal exuberance — but given the technical glitches that riddled the whole show, there was no way Adam was going to get his high notes heard in the detail they deserve. So he was smart to go for spectacle rather than subtlety on an occasion like this. And when he took an apparently unplanned tumble halfway through the performance, he just kept moving without missing a note, like the trooper he is. Good Lord, it was filthy, not to mention one of the most awesomely outrageous rock & roll moments to show up on prime-time network TV lately. It’s already hard to remember what the world was like before Adam Lambert showed up, less than a year ago — but we can be sure it was a colder, drearier, and less pervy place, and moments like this epitomize why we’re glad to have this lady-stardust guy in our lives. Don’t trip off his glitz, America!

Related Stories:

• How Adam Lambert Single-Handedly Saved American Idol
• Adam Lambert Breaks Down AMAs “Controversy”
• Adam Lambert Shocks American Music Awards With Racy “For Your Entertainment”
• Adam Lambert Says Censorship of American Music Awards Song Would Be “Discrimination”