LCD Soundsystem, boygenius, Steve Lacy Redefine Touring with Re:SET Series Kickoff

Cervanté Pope

June 7, 2023 at 1:03 PM·16 min read

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The post LCD Soundsystem, boygenius, Steve Lacy Redefine Touring with Re:SET Series Kickoff appeared first on Consequence.

After everything that’s been going on for the last, let’s say, forever, we all need a good reset. Honestly, anything that can do even the slightest bit of Men in Black mind-erasing of recent memory is worth the money. That’s where the Re:SET concert series comes in, a traveling outdoor event that launched its inaugural “tour” in Los Angeles this weekend (June 2nd-4th).

Meant to be a refreshing take on the festival format, the three-day bill is scheduled to hit cities across the country like New Orleans, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, and more over each June weekend. The AEG-backed series doesn’t force tough decisions with conflicting set times or entirely too-short breaks in between sets. Each night’s headliner (LCD Soundsystem, boygenius, Steve Lacy) also had the pick of the supporting litter by being able to curate their own bill, so the evenings weren’t so much about cohesion as they were about what and who the artists wanted to spotlight with their allotted time. That led to some pretty interesting bills and a pretty exciting time during Re:SET’s first weekend.

Day 1: Steve Lacy – Sensuality Served with a Side of Steve

In Steve Lacy’s case, what he seemingly wanted to put out encompassed varying kinds of smoothness and sexiness. Fousheé’s inherent seduction offered something different than that of Toro Y Moi’s, but in the best of ways. Chaz Bear’s all around a good time — not solely with his discography, but with whom he is as a person. His uninhibited spirit effortlessly emitted out to the crowd just as easily as the sound did from the speakers, bringing so many people together of different backgrounds and styles.

“So Many Details” gave a whirled, kaleidoscope of an atmosphere that produced an enjoyably sedative effect (though it’s possible the wafting THC throughout the air had something to do with it). The more energy and rhythmic movements he exerted, the more everyone else joined in. There was a point where his lyrically emphatic “I don’t give a fuck” on “Laws of the Universe” seamlessly parlayed into the maximizing all-good-things message of “Ordinary Pleasure.” Bear bobbled about the stage, cheekily throwing flirtatious looks and winks at the audience. Everyone loved it.

After covering Flume’s “The Difference,” the last three songs were like Toro Y Magic. He gave blessings and salutations to the other artists on the bill (Lacy in particular, of course) as he made his way through “Rose Quartz.” Once “Freelance” hit, an audience member stuck an incense directly into that sweet Brookside soil and lit it, enveloping those in the vicinity with the proper cleansing for the full moon rising in the sky.

That moon soon became another piece of stage decor, almost as if lighting tech climbed scaffolding up to the high heavens and plopped that natural satellite in its place. As the air grew chillier and the night grew darker, James Blake sought to open sleepy eyes up with a light show during the Travis Scott-featuring “Mile High,” his vocals reverberated off the crisp gusts of wind and wet air. “I’m gonna take you from daylight to dusk to the evening,” Blake crooned before going into “Say What You Will.” Re:SET’s visual team also captured beautiful black and white overhead shots of Blake playing the keys, giving off familiar vibes to Rob Verhorst’s photos of Ian Curtis during Joy Division’s 1980 set at Rotterdam’s Lantaren: artsy and brooding at the same time.

From a cover’s perspective, Blake hit a variety of cuts that he turned into his sad hours’ bedroom electronics, like Frank Ocean’s “Godspeed,” Feist’s “The Limit of Your Love,” and a heartfelt “Hope She’ll Be Happier” by Bill Withers. He named Metro Boomin’s “Hummingbird” as one of his favorites to perform live, and closed with his SZA track “Coming Back,” though he certainly wasn’t coming back for an encore.

We all knew who was next. People sprinted towards the stage with fevered anticipation as the atmospheric sounds “Cody Freestyle” chimed in. Suddenly, Steve Lacy appeared, donning a full-length black trench a la Morpheus in The Matrix and sexily striking his guitar like a Prince/Rick James hybrid. Jumbo screen cameras panned to reveal a crowd of fanatics reacting not too differently from those in The Beatle-mania days.

“You guys look so beautiful; you guys feel so beautiful,” Lacy commented leading into “Buttons.” As if everyone wasn’t sexed up enough already, he slowed down “N Side,” making sure to emphasize the most erotic parts before bending over and shaking it a little bit for those in the front row. You could feel the sexual tension in the air.

“I’m sorry, I’m just so stoned right now I don’t have dumb jokes in my brain,” Lacy quipped while failing to make small talk between songs. Stoniness made perfect sense for the way his visuals and overall vibes were designed since his 21-song-long set saw him switch sunglasses multiple times, hit furious guitar solos, and cast trippy superimposed clips of himself dancing on the jumbo screens. Think those old iPod commercials with all the colorful dancing, except it’s new Steve Lacy with colorful sultry slithers — and it only grew sultrier by the minute. Connan Mockasin’s “I’m the Man, That Will Find You” made knees weak, “C U Girl” made them buckle, and “Bad Habit” made them give out. (Plus, a special shoutout to Fousheé, who returned to the stage for “Sunshine.”)

As the lights faded to red, it was apparent that “Deep Red” was going to be the night’s closer. There was a weird Woodstock feeling during this time — a concentrated elation that hadn’t really been seen much that day. He slowed this one down a bit in the intro, giving off a spiritual energy that took over everyone. Besides “Bad Habit,” it was the track the crowd knew and sang along to the most, the crowd’s chorale hums sounding like bee buzzes leaving the field.

Day 2: boygenius – Attack of the TikTok Clones

If we’ve learned anything from years of IG-filtered recaps, it’s that festivals are inherently social media-able moments, cherry-picked with outside perception in mind. So much of that riddled the festival grounds on Saturday, a youthful exuberance characterized by giggled shrieks and excitement no one over the age of 17 had experienced in years. A large portion — if not the entirety — of it was due to Clairo and boygenius, artists who’ve become the younger generation’s voices of angst, disdain, and poetic pubescence. Bartees Strange was first up to bat and while it seemed like his Bloc Party-like brand of jazzy indie rock didn’t move people as much as it should have, it offered something faster-paced than what was to come (save for Dijon, whose somewhat genre-bending electronic productions were kind of danceable yet disjointed at times).

What wasn’t confusing at all was the excitement the young crowd felt when Clairo took the stage. Her earnestness flowed through “Bambi” as kids, tweens, and teens all jumped up and down screaming at the top of their lungs. “North” even made them sing along as if they’ve actually experienced that level of expressed intimacy. Such excitation got a little bit dangerous though, as someone near the stage fainted, causing Clairo to stop just as she began “Softly.” She soon started it over again, once she knew everything was alright.

An admitted Carole King fan, Clairo said she “planned something special” for this tour by adding one of King’s songs to her set. She cooly covered “Bitter with the Sweet” in a way that honored the original magically but still sounded like a 2023 version. “Partridge” tugged a heartstring or two with its lyrics of longing while the song she wrote for LA, “Amoeba,” hit on the social touchiness of the city.

Much like what Trio (the famed union of Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt) did in 1987, or how artists like Paula Cole, Tori Amos, and the Indigo Girls took over the ‘90s, boygenius are doing now. The powerful three-pack of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus made tender chords and vocal forward songwriters obsessive again. Before they harmonized the intro to “Without You Without Them” backstage, they made sure the time was taken out to acknowledge exactly where we all were. They invited Jessa Calderon of the Chumash and Tongva people out to sing a song of honor and thanks to the land the Rose Bowl is on, and all the “food, water, clothing, and shelter” the land provides to us. For some reason, this ancestral song wasn’t projected onto the big screens, but the crowd did fall silent either in honor or bewilderment. Either way, the subsequent applause was loud and respectful, giving blessings for the band to come out and sing on stolen land.

Dressed in ACDC-esque Catholic school-like uniforms, they followed with “$20.” The camera zoomed in real tight during Lucy’s solo, causing the crowd to go incredibly wild. “Satanist” was the song of the night, “Will you be an anarchist with me?/Sleep in cars and kill the bourgeoisie?” lyrically displayed on tote bags, t-shirts, and captioned in Reels and TikToks. In fact, so much of what was exerted was for social media’s sake — many repeatedly stopped mid-song and stride to pose, often backtracking their steps to get numerous takes. It was a weird sonic backdrop, smiles and field frolicking as “Emily I’m Sorry” and “True Blue” (the “fuck around and find out” part especially) go on in the background. One kid had so much energy to get out they dropped down and started doing pushups while fangirling watery-eyed cries.

Re:SET happened to be a part of boygenius’ first tour since 2018, a fact Bridgers wanted to make sure the crowd knew, along with birthday wishes for her mom. “There sure are a lot of y’all,” Dacus joked looking out into the endless sea of people. “Cool About It,” “Me & My Dog,” and “Salt in the Wound” made that sea swell with sensation, but even with all the love boygenius received as a whole, each of them individually got equally as much. After “closing” out the night with “Ketchum, ID,” the encore set was made of one single from each boygenius member. They did “Please Stay” by Dacus, Baker’s “Favor,” and “Graceland Too” by Bridgers. Memories of these scenes will live long in the ether of the internet, for sure.

Day 3 – Justice for Freedia

Even though Re:SET was only three days long, Sunday started out with a low, laid-back energy similar to what looms over an audience’s head towards the end of a much longer festival. Ideally, having Big Freedia and their hyperactive New Orleans Bounce would’ve livened things up a bit, but their first-up slot was ultimately a disservice to the vivacity their performances typically bring. Their classic “You already knooooowwwwwww” made an appearance on the mic quite a few times, but it was their call-and-response commands for movement that fell short on the crowd alarmingly unable to throw ass. Those in the front tried their hardest to understand the assignment by giving a good percentage of stamina to “N.O. Bounce” and “Azz Everywhere.” Freedia’s sample of Bill Haley & His Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock” piqued some ears but sadly, people start to lose all their momentum when Freedia went into playing the songs they’re featured on. “Nice For What,” Drake’s ode to Black women, received nothing more than lackluster woos, while “Formation” would’ve hit harder if someone was able to sing Bey’s parts live (though really, Bey is the only one who could). Freedia mixed this into their track “Explode,” which Bey sampled on “Break My Soul,” trying to hit the “new vibrations” harmonies towards the end of the song. While Freedia is always a lively good time, in this case, New Orleans Bounce was better suited for evening hours spent a few drinks deep, so that inhibitions are released and hopefully rhythmic movement is unlocked.

Probably the biggest curveball of curveballs came from IDLES’ placement on the bill. While it makes sense for LCD Soundsystem’s curation to be as all over the place as he is, the Brit post-hardcore boys came out of left field in the context of the whole festival itself. Those who were there for them and their nonsense were clearly marked with the band’s merch — as easy to spot in the sea of light colors and flip-flops as fireflies are in the dead of night. No time was wasted in skyrocketing to the top of the energy meter. Guitarist Lee Kiernan already stage dove while playing the second song “Car Crash,” while other guitarist Mark Bowen’s big hair and surprisingly still white Lolita dress went full freakout during the fourth song “Meds.”

At times, vocalist Joe Talbot’s face looked strained by the pressure of full-throttle screaming while directly in the sun’s view, oscillating between shades of bubblegum pink and ripe tomato red. Despite someone — and probably not the only one — in the crowd very matter-of-factly proclaiming “This is not my cup of tea!,” IDLES’ metallic interjection was welcomed by others. Talbot deepthroated the mic while screaming during “Grounds,” just to drastically take swigs from his Hydroflask, call us all “silly, silly sausages,” and go on to give the most unexpectedly deep aside of the day.

He thanked the sun for shining, the people of LA for shining as well, and for “the security [t]here to take care of us all.” It’s a comment that may seem small and insignificant to some, but in the context of our world, it ended up meaning something fervent, especially in a crowd as big as that one was. He couldn’t stay too serious for long though, as he ordered everyone repeatedly to get low. When they weren’t heeding his wishes quickly enough, he retorted with an “Excuse me, we’re in California—get low please.”

It led to a larger point, though. Talbot, a staunch socialist, met the sitting crowd with a bout of shady appreciation. “That, for me, is enough,” he said before continuing with “You can’t win them all, all the time.” This transparently led to some very warranted disses to Republicans, taking us straight into the apropos “Never Fight a Man With a Perm.” Even funnier, Talbot very painfully forced out some of the lyrics to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” before granting us the “very special privilege” of getting long versions of very short songs. They spent their final 13 minutes on “Danny Nedelko” and “Rottweiler,” leaving the audience to continue baking in the sun.

Placement-wise, Jamie xx serviced as a pretty ideal transition into LCD Soundsystem, since he was the only act with even slightly a similar sound we’d gotten the whole weekend. A disco ball lowered from the ceiling as people stretched, rehydrated, and popped whatever experience-enhancing concoctions necessary in preparation for the dance party to come. He played “Gosh” and “I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)” among others, the crowd packing closer and closer to each other searching for a good view.

Thankfully, Brookside’s hilly golf course terrain allowed for many to have such views, as the stage eventually lit up with vibrant colors for LCD Soundsystem’s “Get Innocuous!” Energized and ready to go, James Murphy followed the song’s Kraftwerk sample by incorporating another one, blending the main hook of “Computer Love” into “I Can Change.” He kept putting on and taking off his jacket in bouts of “I can’t decide if it’s hot or cold,” but playing “Daft Punk Is Playing at My House” warmed him up a considerable amount. That, and the beefy cowbell he pulled out during it.

Murphy, a nice fellow who unintentionally gave off a “Morrissey meets Gordon Ramsey but make it nice” type energy, apologized to those on the outskirts feigning for better views since all the hills and their subsequent sand traps were taken. As “new body rhumba” came to its close, he started deeply singing the word “colonoscopy” along with some banter about bouncing bowels as the stage lights and jumbo screen faded into these serene shades of Starburst orange and pink.

Growing all the more silly and animated, Murphy and the rest of his band leaned further into the chaos of seizure-like illumination and madness. Interpretive dancing was like this set’s mosh pits, with many twirling about in some sort of a joyful daze. The slow nature of “New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down” filled the tank of most diehard fans, but it faded into “Dance Yrself Clean” with climatic relief for everyone holding out for their favorite hit. No longer LCD blue balled, “All My Friends” closed out the night in a way that all corniness aside, left many feeling a sense of friendship as they bonded on the trek back to the parking lot.