James Murphy didn’t direct Shut Up And Play The Hits, the documentary about the last concert performed by his band, LCD Soundsystem, at Madison Square Garden in 2011. But the film is a product of his magpie record-collector’s aesthetic. The idea to throw a big farewell bash with friends (including Arcade Fire and comedian-musician Reggie Watts) is cribbed from The Last Waltz. The film’s elegiac, end-of-an-era tone comes from Woodstock. The framing device for Shut Up And Play The Hits—the ecstatic performance footage is cut with morning-after scenes of a pensive, bored-looking Murphy struggling to come to terms with what he’s just done—is reminiscent of Gimme Shelter. The obvious difference is that there’s a lot less at stake in Shut Up And Play The Hits: Nobody died at LCD Soundsystem’s final show, apart from the group identity Murphy created a decade earlier.
