Arcade Fire Reviews

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Good Points: All that energy!

General comments: The Arcade Fire's set at Leeds Festival on Sunday evening was, arguably, the best live performance I have ever seen by a band. Now, considering I've probably seen over 40 or 50 bands this year alone, that is no empty platitude.

For anyone who doesn't know about them, they are from Montreal and are fronted by husband and wife Win Butler and Regine Chassagne. Win is a 6'5" guitarist and Regine is a tiny (5'3" or 5'4", hard to tell because all the males in the band are giants) multi-instrumentalist. She played keyboard, guitar, accordion and drums at various points. There are also about 5 or 6 others in the band - they moved around so much I didn't really stop to count. They make this unusual sound containing accordions, guitars, violins, keyboards and wild percussion, and it ranges from soft sweet ballads, to angsty thrashy guitar-pop, to unusual folky experimental indie pop. Their album is called Funeral and it should be horribly depressing, but the emotion and the energy that they throw into it, makes it all seem very hopeful rather than melancholic or sad.

As for Sunday night? Well, imagine 7 people on stage making music not only as if their lives depended on it, but as if it was the only thing they had ever wanted to be doing. They are completely un-self-conscious and they seem to feel every note they play or sing. The Radio 1 Stage was a wall of energetic percussion and shouted harmonies as they drummed on every available surface - speaker stacks, keyboards, the stage, motorcycle helmets and each others heads. Win, per usual, couldn't contain himself from diving into the crowd, only to be dragged out by security, at which point he broke away from them and did it again.

>The crowd was a mixture of people who had wanted to get a glimpse of the band they had heard so much about (I think I was one of a lucky few who had seen them before and knew what to expect), and nutters trying to get there early to watch Babyshambles, who were appearing afterwards. The tent was fuller than it should have been, and there was much shoving, throwing of full pints of beer and shouting. By the end of their set, even playing to a crowd where only half the people were fussed, the atmosphere was completely mental, and the entire crowd was screaming, dancing along and shouting for more. The band were finally forced off stage by security, after a 10 minute rendition of "Power Out" which was possibly the highlight of a brilliant festival for me.

I can't actually praise this performance enough. I thought I'd long seen the gigs that were going to move me the way that the Arcade Fire did, and I suspect it will be a long while before anything can compete. I also came out kicking myself and my other half, as we had tickets to see them tonight, but sold them in order to go see the Pixies instead. So, here's hoping that Arcade Fire come back for a full scale tour soon, because I for one, cannot wait!