So the LCD Soundsystem part of my concert review took longer to distill than I expected. Now on to Arcade Fire ...
At this point, night had fallen on a beautiful, crisp, late-summer evening, with the moon shining on the seats of the outdoor theater that was much more cozy Muny than corporately detached [insert sponsor] Riverport. They came on stage and got right to it: The excitement from the crowd and the clear happiness the band had for being there said this was going to be a fantastic night.
The stage included out-of-sight, fixed, low-angle cameras pointed to specific spots on the stage -- rather than following performers around -- and they were displayed on circular-screen, box-shape surfaces reminiscent of the earliest '50s-era televisions. All of which created a cool remote effect when black-and-white shots of various performers moved in and out of the "screen" as they played each song.
Totally, TOTALLY different effect from the Riverport lawn experience, in which a large pixelated screen shows the results of a camera following a gyrating performer around stage, and that is your best and sole view of the performance happening on the far-off stage jammed under the pavilion roof.
As Arcade Fire opened this "Neon Bible" tour, those screens were used to show a disturbing, multiplying mix of televangelists spouting their crap over one another until you couldn't think or differentiate their words, and you started to hope organized religion was just a piece of Kafkan fiction.
We were some 30 rows back, but close enough to easily pick out the head of our friend Tall-T -- who always scores great seats -- bobbing up and down in the first row. The crowd was singing and swaying (or bobbing) through the whole set. Arcade Fire went through virtually every notable song from their two albums.
Madness, beautiful madness As I mentioned before, I love bands that make great use of a whole crapload of instruments -- and enjoys the hell out of performing them -- and Arcade Fire certainly does that. A sampling of the amateur "covers" on YouTube gives me that much more respect for how talented they are as both performers and composers.
Rejean played the accordion, piano, organ, drums, hurdy-gurdy, and surely other instruments I'm not versed enough to name. The French horn, oboe, sax and trumpet were also featured by band members. And the two violinists simply kicked ass. There's something sexy about rocking out with violins and an accordion, particularly if you have -- ahem -- nice legs and sculpted violinist arms. (Mrs. Fall of Because said their flowing skirt hems were a tad short, but Tall-T and I liked them just fine. Huh.)
Lead singer and Texas native Win Butler introduced "Intervention" with, "This is a song about the ex-governor of me and my brother's home state." Heh heh. We need this therapy.
Another great part about Arcade Fire that is perfect for live settings is the number of songs that easily grab the crowd into singing with a chorus of "HOhhhhh-oooh, hoh-oooooh, oh-ooooh"s. It sounds great already on record with all their performers joining in. But in concert, when it yanks thousands of people to sing melodically in unison with a burst of energy, it's priceless -- it brings you into this single, singing organism with people you could very well be cursing in the parking lot 60 minutes later (or for chain-smoking cigarettes throughout the set, which the dudes behind us did).
They did two encores after some 90 minutes or more of playing. I don't even remember how long or what songs came where -- it was just an immersion of every great feeling I've ever harvested from live hearing music all wrapped into one. An overwhelming experience of chills, tears and life affirmation. Damn, music has some incredible physiological effects on a body. What coma would I be in without it?
As you may have noticed, the site has changed. Sampa, the free-site host, did a version 2 of some sort.
Despite an FAQ that made it sound like allowing one's site to go through v.2 surgery would be okay, there were several flexibilities that surprisingly disappeared with the click of a button. (e.g. I cannot believe sidebars like this one are even narrower than before.)
And I'm told -- miraculously! -- that the conversion cannot be undone. Truth be told, I'm actually quite pissed. But free is free. Sampa has otherwise been good to me.
So I need to sort through site "features" to see how I can make do. Except that I don't have the time at the moment, in the middle of graduate classes and Lighthousehockey.com. (btw, I've removed that Lighthouse RSS feed so that you're not clogged with random Islanders hockey gibberish).
But I promise to touch up the accessories when I get a chance, and return to irregularly scheduled blogging.
Subscribe to this Site
their crap over one another until you couldn't think or differentiate their words, and you started to hope organized religion was just a piece of Kafkan fiction.
Comments for "Arcade Fire - LCD Soundsyste...
February, 2008