Date: 01/02/07
Rating:
A new standard has been set. From now on if you go to a gig and it doesn't end with you standing onstage while the band stroll amongst the audience, thanking fans individually and stopping every few yards to launch into another song, then you have the right to demand your money back. Running through the back catalogue, playing the new single as the encore and grunting at the audience between songs will no longer suffice.
It is perhaps unfair, however, to expect other bands to abide by the same rules as Arcade Fire, as everyone's favourite slightly gothy Canadian band appear to inhabit a totally different world to 99% of their contemporaries. Theirs is a world where band members swap instruments between, and sometimes during, songs and where megaphones, accordions, mandolins, violas and gourds live in perfect harmony with guitar, bass and drums. Right now it's the most exciting place to live in the whole of Planet Pop.
Tonight the stage at the Porchester Hall is invaded by musicians who play all manner of instruments with a furious energy and a barely contained anger. Even the angelic violin players look like they would beat you to a bloody pulp if you crossed them. It's a unique and dazzling spectacle.
The energy created by the band transfers to the audience and the atmosphere inside the lush venue is euphoric, like an American TV evangelist's fund raising event but with better music and haircuts.
The band start the fourth concert of their five night stay in London with 'Keep The Car Running' a song from the new album 'Neon Bible' which combines intimidating thunderous drums with singer Win Butler's booming angst ridden vocals to glorious effect. The brooding 'Black Mirror' and the lush, anthemic 'No Cars Go' then showcase Arcade Fire's ability to sound simultaneously both overwhelmingly huge, and touchingly intimate.
A gorgeous version of 'Haiti' is the first song of the night from 'Funeral' with Regine Cassagne's haunting voice filling the hall as she sings about her birthplace. She's a woman who could teach the England football team a thing or two about versatility as she moves from being lead singer to xylophone player to accordionist to the marauding full back role during four consecutive songs.
The mood changes from warm and loving to dark and ominous during the dense 'My Body Is A Cage'. It's the sound of a man having a nervous breakdown set to a pipe organ backing - "I'm standing on the stage of fear and self-doubt, it's a hollow play but they'll clap anyway."
After a tub thumping version of 'Rebellion (Lies)' and a raucous, rocking 'Power Out', the band finish with 'Intervention' - an angry hymn which admirably manages to stay on the right side of the 'uplifting anthem vs. overblown nonsense' divide.
As the last note is played the band grab their instruments and rush off down the steps at the right hand side of the stage. They run into the venue's foyer and perform a sing-along acoustic version of 'Wake Up'.
The fun doesn't end there though as they then head back into the hall, wander through the assembled masses shaking hands and posing for photos before stopping in the middle of the venue to launch into a cover of 'Guns of Brixton' by The Clash. The rules of rock and roll are rewritten as fans stand on stage while the band perform on the floor of the arena.
It's a startling end to the show. The audience spill out on to the streets of West London content that the £100 they paid on eBay for their ticket was a bargain, and promising to dedicate the rest of their time on this mortal coil trying to master the mandolin.
Whether Arcade Fire will now go on to conquer the charts, appear in The Simpsons and sell millions of albums is something for record company executives and JK and Joel to worry about. If 'Neon Bible' can capture just 1% of the band's live energy then it promises to be something very special.
John McCarthy
Arcade Fire Official Site
Merge Records
Rough Trade Records
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