There's a slight sense of déjà vu when LCD Soundsystem burst into life with 'Us Vs. Them' - last time around they had started on this tune and had also toured before their latest LP had been released, which always seems odd and not very product-friendly!

Catching them last time in Birmingham it had been notable that their celebrated debut had been avoided, apart from a cursory 'Daft Punk Is Playing In My House' and a tedious/endless version of 'Yeah' which seemed obtuse. The celebrated Sound of Silver wasn't yet out, James Murphy avoided the Scary Monsters-vocal of the LP, and they weren't arsed to do an encore. Still, Sound of Silver was fantastic and LCD Soundsystem are rumoured be on their third and final album, so a last chance to see.

As with last time, most of the new material did little for me - single 'Drunk Girls' stood out, sounding like The Modern Lovers, or how The Strokes should have sounded had they managed to transcend Is This It . The other three new songs did absolutely bugger all for me and indicate that the universally average reviews for This Is Happening may be fairly accurate.

Then again, hard for them to measure up to such joys as 'Get Innocuous', 'Daft Punk...', the anthemic 'All My Friends', 'Tribulations', and the Fall-like 'Movement.' Though to be fair, the main set did seem to go on far too long, the funky-bass seemed to become uniform, and an even longer version of 'Yeah' ensued which was probably trying to be Can but sent me to the bar/toilet/cross-word/knitting...

The sense that the main set sounded exceedingly similar with that bass and the central disco biscuit rhythms as dull as The Chemical Brothers were wiped from the mind as LCD not only delivered an encore, but a killer one at that. Opening with 'Someone Great' they sounded like that point when Joy Division fused into New Order, with a hint of that Arthur Baker 'Confusion'/'I.O.U.'-vibe - though at the same time, they sounded like LCD Soundsystem. Just goes to prove that you can deliberately rip-off and sound original as a result!

The balcony at the Academy had been bouncing for most of the preceding set, but went into overdrive when 'Losing My Edge' was delivered - call and response stuff with amusing alternative references and certainly one of LCD's crowning achievements. The hour-and-fifty minute gig concluded with an epic take on 'New York, I Love You But You're Brining Me Down' which really is LCD's 'Rock 'N' Roll Suicide' and managed to sound fantastic even when covering a bit of Alicia Keys' 'Empire State of Mind' - possibly due to the glam-rock solo that followed Nancy Whang's charming vocal. As before, the unexciting uniform dance music and the tedious 'Yeah' got in the way a bit, as well as underwhelming new material, but if this was LCD Soundsystem's last hurrah, it was suitably thorough and a reminder that they were someone great...