I am a square, and hence I was pretty much naive to the existence of the band LCD Soundsystem. In retrospect, I do remember having seen front-man James Murphy on The Colbert Report, but I may have skipped over the musical performance portion of the show.

A couple of months ago a good friend of mine demanded that we get the concert documentary about the band's farewell gig at the Mayfair. If they can be made a reality, my friends movie programming wishes are the Mayfair's command. Luckily in this case the movie was made available to us.

Went to the Mayfair tonight, my grand return after having been away for much too long thanks to Blues Fest work eating up my nights. It was an excellent night to make my comeback, and I'm very glad that my friend has hipster music knowledge that my geeky brain lacks. We got a really great turn-out, even though you would think that much of the interested patron base would be currently not here university folks. Since there was such a big crowd, I did a lil' intro and got a nice ego boost that a couple of statements got laughs and I got a nice round of applause at the conclusion of my bit.

The movie opens the morning after of the band's last concert, with the singer and mastermind crawling out of bed, taking congratulatory messages and walking his adorable puppy. I am not a fan of the straight-forward concert doc's. I find just watching music performed on the big screen with no interview or behind-the-scenes breaks tends to leave one feeling a little restless. Thankfully this movie was not that.

Despite the weird fact that the leader of this particular band took upon the rather bizarre decision to leave on the verge of possible super-stardom with only a couple albums under his belt, his character is not what you might think. He's not some artsy diva out to stick it to the man. He's just a guy who somehow stumbled into a bit of fame and popularity and at middle-age kinda-realized that he would rather do without it. He's rather likeable and endearing in his interviews and interactions with other people on screen, and you really feel for the guy throughout. You also (or at least I also) completely can understand his dilemma, and identify with how he might feel in his unusual situation.

The doc is very well edited together in a non-linear fashion, features rather beautiful cinematography, and maybe the most important features a bunch of great music. Us unlucky ones who are much too late to jump onto the LCD Soundsystem bandwagon will never see them in a live setting. If you're in Ottawa or another city with a theatre cool enough to get a hold of this limited release, at least you have one more night to see them do their show amongst a crowd on the big screen. One last chance to see the LCD Soundsystem and pretend that you are in NYC at Madison Square Garden seeing them off with a grand concert farewell.

Shut Up and Play the Hits - Thursday July 19th - 9:30pm - Mayfair Theatre