LCD Soundsystem make a triumphant return to Victoria Park for All Points East 2024

The first day of All Point East’s closing weekend sees LCD Soundsystem returning to Victoria Park six years after headlining the inaugural festival back in 2018. The Brooklyn group’s core influences of punk and electronica both get their time in the sun during a day which spans both genre and eras with aplomb.

Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard attracts the first sizeable crowd of the day, as the producer delivers melodic dance tracks to a sweaty North Arena tent. Lively visuals and bone-fide bangers such as ‘Gabriel’ set the wheels in motion for the day, with album collaborator Findia joining Goddard to provide vocals for both ‘Destiny’ and ‘When You Call’. Perhaps an obvious booking, given LCD’s connection with Hot Chip (the two bands share the services of multi-instrumentalist Al Doyle), but it’s a performance which undoubtedly sets a high bar for the day ahead.

Jockstrap take to the Main (or East) Stage late in the afternoon for a triumphant forty minute appearance which more than justifies their prominent position on the lineup. The duo’s avant production and wonky song structures have taken on a life of their own since the release of their long-awaited 2022 debut ‘I Love You, Jennifer B’, with ‘Concrete Over Water’’s violin bridge and ‘Glasgow’’s acoustic country chords (both performed by vocalist Georgia Ellery) tessellating seamlessly with Taylor Skye’s glitchy electronics. Ellery briefly leaves the stage to re-appear in metre-tall mechanical legs for ‘50/50’, before Skye’s earnest outro on the mic - in which he thanks the audience for coming to their set from beneath his auburn hair-metal wig - is met with overwhelming love from the East London crowd.

Transitioning from one of the festival circuit’s most exciting new acts over to legends of the game, next Pixies take to the stage with a stacked setlist which sees ‘Wave of Mutilation’, ‘Hey’ and ‘Monkey Gone to Heaven’ all appearing early in their tenure. ‘Here Comes Your Man’ and ‘Where Is My Mind?’ incur rapturous singalongs from a headline-sized audience as guitarist Joey Santiago asserts his position as one of the most influential in the genre; during the Boston group’s showing, he crafts solos via the feedback from an unplugged guitar lead, and even uses the peak of his cap to shred instrumental bridges.  

Prior to LCD Soundsystem’s headline performance, Jai Paul closes the festival’s West Stage in an emotional homecoming. Having disappeared from the public eye as a buzzy newcomer in 2013 following the online leak of his debut album, ‘Bait Ones’, Paul finally re-emerged in 2023 to a patient worldwide fanbase who were only too happy to welcome him back. A stellar showing at last year’s Coachella and two sold out shows at London’s Outernet marked one of year’s most heartwarming headlines, with a pre-headline slot at Victoria Park making for the perfect new chapter. Joined on stage by brother AK Paul, Jai opens his set with a cover of Big Boi’s ‘Higher Res’ before dropping a crowd-pleasing rendition of ‘He’. The stage configuration lives up to the grandiosity of the occasion, with Paul’s live group spread around a large stone structure and screen visuals which resemble a chain reaction in a firework factory. “My parents are here tonight,” Jai announces in a rare piece of dialogue, before the intro to ‘Str8 Outta Mumbai’ ignites every corner of the audience in a jubilant end to the show.