Arcade Fire
Arcade Fire, The Astoria, London, 09-05-05
10/05/05 19:36 Filed in: Gigs
Arcade Fire blew me away. I had a feeling they'd be really good, reviews have been positive and buzz has been building. I took my place almost at the back of the tiny, cramped and hot Astoria and they just sauntered on with a relaxed smile as the knowingly hip London crowd welcomed them to their biggest gig yet. There are 7 members, almost too many to keep up with the action on stage. A string quartet joined them for a few songs taking the stage head count to 11. They sound like... a shade of Belle & Sebastian with a touch of Talking Heads but, paradoxically, totally original. How rare is that in music these days in the days of identikit bands like Interpol/Thrills/Killers/Franz and so on. They're all the same, Arcade Fire stand head and shoulders above them.
They have great songs. And all the eyeliner and ties in the world can't hide that most bands these days don't. I found myself jumping along with the crowd, most of whom clearly already had the album. I had never heard a song by this band before and in the 75 mins of their performance I was won over. Actually I was won over within 10 mins, the band spark off each other so perfectly, they play so well together and the multi instrumentation works perfectly. Usually when the singer or singers of a band are also musicians there's an element of just standing there without engaging the audience in a way that a hands free singer can. They didn't fall into that trap, they connected on every level with the rabid and adoring audience.
They deserve their plaudits. This morning I ordered 2 copies of the album, one for me and one for my dad. It's just his kind of thing, he'll love it. In fact I predict it will become one of his albums of the year. I may have great taste but my dad's is even better.
So, Arcade Fire really are the next big thing. I can't remember the last time a band thrilled me that much live on first hearing. And I certainly can't remember ever being blown away like that by a band whose songs I'd never heard before.
...
Arcade Fire, Brixton, London, 19-03-07
19/03/07 19:18 Filed in: Gigs
Joyous. That's the best word on earth to describe seeing Arcade Fire live.
In May 2005 I got a spare ticket to see AF at the Astoria in London. I'd never heard one song. And they blew my head off. No other band has had such an effect on me on first play. That night they were all squashed onto a smallish stage, running around from side to side, swapping instruments; they created the most exquisite noise and it was one of those gigs you never forget.
I got Neon Bible at the beginning of last week and on first play, I was underwhelmed. I berated myself for having expected the songs to be immediate and briefly worried about my attention span, since the Gossip album had jumped right into my brain the week before. But that's an album that I don't feel the need to listen to over and over, obsessively - and yet that's exactly what's happened with Neon Bible. It's under my skin now, that album. It's, in the old fashioned musical term, a grower; an album of tremendous depth and opulent arrangements. It fills my room with sound and has a life of its own. It's a remarkable piece of work that will only get better.
On Saturday, after a bit of ticket-getting luck, I saw them again live. Seven days after I stood in the Brixton Academy and saw NIN I stood in the same venue waiting to hear how Neon Bible sounds live. Sure, I was looking forward to tracks from Funeral but really I was there to get another play of the new album, this time live.
The stage set was simplistically beautiful - four vertical light bars spread across the stage; a huge curtain for projections at the back; five light boxes a few feet high with white circles for visuals (often the Neon Bible album cover or shots of the band, plenty of red light on stage at all times) and the most dizzying array of instruments seen outside a classical concert. Spotting them became a game as we waited for them to come on - aside from the obvious guitars/drums/bass we spotted a piano, double bass, xylophone, keyboard, French horn, accordion and hurdy gurdy. And when the band walked on there was of course the violin and viola players to the right. Given the arrangements you can't imagine any less than the 7 band members plus the 3 additional musicians being able to play these songs. Oh, and a pipe organ too at the back which must have been at least 15 feet high.
You would think this would create the 'I don't know where to look' effect thus making it distracting to have so much to feast the eyes on but it didn’t work like that. The sound is a collective, a huge wave coming off the stage. It seemed to take both band and crowd five or so songs to get into it. The new album has only been out a couple of weeks after all so it was bound to be a Funeral song that got everyone going. After that it was a blur of energy; the crowd bounced and sang and the band fed off the crowd - from grinning and singing at the front rows to bashing a drum high above a head, it's clear AF get great pleasure from playing live.
The sound was good, after a fashion, and it was hard to keep up with the band members who kept swapping instruments. You had to chuckle as Regine in particular did an entire circuit of the stage having played violin, accordion, keyboards and drums, all while singing. Highlights for me were No Cars Go and Rebellion but it was all superb. Not many bands could get away with the ending either - an unamplified cover of the Clash's Guns of Brixton with loudhailers. You couldn't hear it but no-one cared. Neon Bible is a dramatic step forward from Funeral. There's not much more that's musically satisfying than liking a cracker of a debut album and seeing the so-called difficult second album blow it out of the water. There truly is no other band on earth like them. And if they do start to spread their influence, already seen in English band The Guillemots, they will surely remain the best at what they do.
Keep The Car Running
No Cars Go
Haiti
Mirror
Black Wave/BV
Windowsill
Ocean of Noise
Tunnels
The Well & The Lighthouse
Power Out
Rebellion
Intervention
Wake Up
Guns of Brixton
...
In May 2005 I got a spare ticket to see AF at the Astoria in London. I'd never heard one song. And they blew my head off. No other band has had such an effect on me on first play. That night they were all squashed onto a smallish stage, running around from side to side, swapping instruments; they created the most exquisite noise and it was one of those gigs you never forget.
I got Neon Bible at the beginning of last week and on first play, I was underwhelmed. I berated myself for having expected the songs to be immediate and briefly worried about my attention span, since the Gossip album had jumped right into my brain the week before. But that's an album that I don't feel the need to listen to over and over, obsessively - and yet that's exactly what's happened with Neon Bible. It's under my skin now, that album. It's, in the old fashioned musical term, a grower; an album of tremendous depth and opulent arrangements. It fills my room with sound and has a life of its own. It's a remarkable piece of work that will only get better.
On Saturday, after a bit of ticket-getting luck, I saw them again live. Seven days after I stood in the Brixton Academy and saw NIN I stood in the same venue waiting to hear how Neon Bible sounds live. Sure, I was looking forward to tracks from Funeral but really I was there to get another play of the new album, this time live.
The stage set was simplistically beautiful - four vertical light bars spread across the stage; a huge curtain for projections at the back; five light boxes a few feet high with white circles for visuals (often the Neon Bible album cover or shots of the band, plenty of red light on stage at all times) and the most dizzying array of instruments seen outside a classical concert. Spotting them became a game as we waited for them to come on - aside from the obvious guitars/drums/bass we spotted a piano, double bass, xylophone, keyboard, French horn, accordion and hurdy gurdy. And when the band walked on there was of course the violin and viola players to the right. Given the arrangements you can't imagine any less than the 7 band members plus the 3 additional musicians being able to play these songs. Oh, and a pipe organ too at the back which must have been at least 15 feet high.
You would think this would create the 'I don't know where to look' effect thus making it distracting to have so much to feast the eyes on but it didn’t work like that. The sound is a collective, a huge wave coming off the stage. It seemed to take both band and crowd five or so songs to get into it. The new album has only been out a couple of weeks after all so it was bound to be a Funeral song that got everyone going. After that it was a blur of energy; the crowd bounced and sang and the band fed off the crowd - from grinning and singing at the front rows to bashing a drum high above a head, it's clear AF get great pleasure from playing live.
The sound was good, after a fashion, and it was hard to keep up with the band members who kept swapping instruments. You had to chuckle as Regine in particular did an entire circuit of the stage having played violin, accordion, keyboards and drums, all while singing. Highlights for me were No Cars Go and Rebellion but it was all superb. Not many bands could get away with the ending either - an unamplified cover of the Clash's Guns of Brixton with loudhailers. You couldn't hear it but no-one cared. Neon Bible is a dramatic step forward from Funeral. There's not much more that's musically satisfying than liking a cracker of a debut album and seeing the so-called difficult second album blow it out of the water. There truly is no other band on earth like them. And if they do start to spread their influence, already seen in English band The Guillemots, they will surely remain the best at what they do.
Keep The Car Running
No Cars Go
Haiti
Mirror
Black Wave/BV
Windowsill
Ocean of Noise
Tunnels
The Well & The Lighthouse
Power Out
Rebellion
Intervention
Wake Up
Guns of Brixton
...
Arcade Fire, Neon Bible
27/03/07 19:17 Filed in: Records
If I’d had to review it after one listen I imagine mine would have been somewhat like Rolling Stone legend David Fricke’s in tone. Reading his 3 1/2 star review, it’s certain to have been done after spending a mere 50 minutes in the company of this band. I confess that on first play I was under whelmed too. The songs didn’t leap out at me as debut Funeral’s had. I sat quietly after the first play and considered the nature of the modern music product versus the relative attention span of the listener. In eras gone by, albums were called ‘growers’. My parent’s generation might have fallen in love instantly with an album like Revolver but they would have to work hard at material like John Wesley Harding. Shouldn’t great albums, work that lasts, demand repeated plays? If you can get a full sense of an album on only one turn I’m not sure it’s going to last in the great pantheon of work. I appreciate Oasis. They are one of the great British bands of their time and I own each and every one of their releases but their albums have a puddle’s depth. And, aside from the first two, I have felt no desire to listen again to the rest of their discography.
In that spirit, I felt the calling of Neon Bible, an album that implores you to play it over and again. There can be nothing that affirms your love and passion for music more than a release that you sense holds great depth, a shining silver circle begging to be swallowed by a music system that does it justice. This is a dark album, a gothic record in the traditional sense, and it demands attention. I fell for Funeral after a Bowie recommendation but I had no right to expect such a grand leap forward for the follow up. It’s a sumptuous, lush, complex album. It crackles with indignant fire on 9/11 inspired track Antichrist Television Blues. For Ocean of Noise you float on a cloud above your bed as if you’ve woken up in a Michel Gondry film.
There’s a signature Arcade Fire sound: a crescendo of music, as a driving, determined song builds towards its zenith and explodes finally into release. It’s a joyous feeling when it happens and it’s never better demonstrated on No Cars Go, itself a reworked version of a track on their 2003 self-titled debut EP, and Keep The Car Running. Album closer My Body Is A Cage is a sombre, powerful, organ-laden triumph, a song that aches your heart and mind. There are few other bands currently able to pass such a musical current through your body. This collective and the mind-bending array of instruments they’re able to call upon have created an album of immeasurable beauty. It’s not only an album I don’t see beaten easily in the Album of the Year rush at 2007’s end but it’s a piece of art that may not be bettered in their careers.
...
Arcade Fire, MEN Arena, Manchester, 27-10-07
27/10/07 19:15 Filed in: Gigs
When my dad heard they were playing Manchester on my birthday he decided we should see them together, as my birthday present. I jumped at the chance. Not even a hideous thrashing at the football on Saturday afternoon could sour my mood - I was home, with friends and family, and about to see a band who have become one of my favourite acts to see over the last few years. I was beamingly happy all day and evening, this being my 3rd AF gig this year after Brixton Academy and Glastonbury.
I was excited and nervous, I hoped beyond hope that it would be a great show and my dad would love them as much as he does on record. Arriving at the venue, we were quite amazed to see the sheer variety of the attendees - from your average couple who wouldn't look out of place at a Simply Red gig to emo teenagers to horn-rimmed glasses wearing students to lads with a permanent pint in their hand. The place was packed. A moment later the lights went out, a brief evangelical-style clip played on the small circular screens and ten shadowed figures walked onstage to huge cheers. It was the first time I had been seated at a concert for quite some time and I won't lie - it was weird. My dad, he says at his age, 57, isn't up for standing at rock concerts anymore after 40-odd years of gig going. Initially I felt somewhat out of it, as I looked longingly at the writhing masses of people packing the centre floor. Starting with four tracks from Neon Bible I was gratified to hear the great reception each song received. When I'd seen them at Brixton, the album had been out for only 2 weeks and the Funeral songs were greeted like old friends, 'hits' even. This time every single person seemed to know the newer songs. In lieu of being able to get up and jump around I found the percussive rhythms of the band irresistible. If you can't move your feet or tap your hands to a band like Arcade Fire you must be completely lacking in the ability to let music wash over you.
And that's what they do - they create a tidal wave of sound, building it up skillfully before pushing each instrument and voice to its limit before the waves crash around you, almost becoming white noise at its highest points. Songs from both albums mingled together with ease and their stagecraft has changed and improved immeasurably. As always, Regine was adorable - bounding around from drums to vocals to accordion, keyboards, always with a joyful step.
I'd read a difficult, somewhat negative interview with them in the Guardian that morning. Clearly struggling to handle the new demands placed on them, as a result of the surprising success of Neon Bible, outside of their natural domain - concerts - Win came across as aloof and uncooperative. They aren't playing the industry game that well and in some ways that's laudable. In others, not so much - who wants to come across in the press as difficult and arrogant? One interesting comment from the interview was that, after a summer of touring, they seemingly don't now consider themselves a band who excels at festivals. The mud stopped them from enjoying Glastonbury, which initially came across as a 'get over yourself' moment as I read it but then I realised that they are absolutely right about their festival performances. Not that they were bad at Glasto, not at all. But the special relationship they try and create between band and audience can seemingly only be formed between them and people who have paid to see them. As in, a festival crowd isn’t going to be of one mind, one reason for attending, and one desire to connect with this band on stage. On Saturday I saw the best of everyone - the band and the audience. They work hard and reach out to the crowd and the crowd push back. The joyful, communal experience I felt at the Astoria three years ago was present and amplified by the 15,000+ crowd in the venue.
Sitting a good half way back I had a unique chance to see the whole show, as a stage piece - the seamless swap of all imaginable kind of instruments in between songs, the power and energy of drums/bass/guitar augmented with their 2 man brass section, 2 violinists and so many stringed and percussive instruments I lost count. An hour into the show, a chatty Win said they were going to play a song never played before. "When I first heard this band they made me want to play music. I was ill for a year and then better for a while and now I'm ill again. This is Still Ill." I leapt out of my seat with joy as they raced through a charming, slightly ramshackle, cover of the Smiths song, from their '83 debut. The coolness of that moment, well, words fail me. It was an exhilarating show, over too quickly. We bounced out of the venue and were home 20 minutes later. Yes, the arena really is that close to home! Dad said he was overwhelmed by the band and their sound, by their songs. The morning after he said the more he'd thought about the show the better it was getting in his mind. Bear in mind my dad has seen everyone live from Miles Davis to the Doors to Zeppelin, Zappa, Santana, - artists who were backed by, or bands who contained, the most immense musicians. Arcade Fire have the potential to turn into one of the great live bands. Album number three can't come fast enough.
Black Mirror
Keep The Car Running
(Antichrist Television Blues)
No Cars Go
Haiti
I'm Sleeping In A Submarine
In The Backseat
Windowsill
Ocean Of Noise
Tunnels
The Well & The Lighthouse
Still Ill
Power Out
Rebellion
------------------------------
Intervention
Wake Up
...