Arcade Fire Show, 6/1/07
Good God, it was cold out last night. On our trek up to the Greek Theater in Berkeley to see Arcade Fire in the first of their two gigs in the area, we ended up having to stop by the American Apparel store on Bancroft and Telegraph to buy a scarf. Who knew they even sold scarves at the daringly-bare no-sweatshop emporium?
We are now officially so old, we didn't even bother looking for seats down below, and went straight up the hill and got seats on the bleachers by the portapotties. Any shame we might have felt was somewhat assuaged by the commentary by the folks sitting behind us: "Thank god we're not down in the stands. This way we don't have to hear the people singing along." Truer words were never spoken.
Arcade Fire really are trying to turn into Montreal's Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band -- every song was an anthem, and they certainly know how to put on a show. We thought the neon bible logos they had on stage looked kind of like underpants, though.
YouTube clip of yesterday's Neighborhood #3 (Power Out). More clips here. One more gig tonight at the Greek at 8 p.m.
Arcade Fire's known for putting on passionate stageshows, with the whole nonet singing and playing their hearts out (two extra people are on stage for the tour). And, as our neighbors had gloomily predicted, there was indeed quite a bit of singing along in the audience. Black mirror!
It was so cold, though, we couldn't bear to take our hands out of our pockets to clap. In the middle of the show, one of the violinists did end up conceding to the elements and put on a shrug of some sort to cover up her bare arms. And at one point, the fog rolled in right over the stage in the middle of a set. Lead singer Win Butler jokingly complained that the fog had shorted out his amp, but then hastily added, "No, it's okay, I understand the fog is part of your local character."
Some of the other highlights for us: we had no idea singer Regine Chassagne 1) could sing like Bjork and 2) could play the drums. And we really loved the song Butler wrote about his grandfather's funeral in San Francisco, the appropriately-titled "Cold Wind."
Arcade Fire, though, has gotten really, really big -- and maybe it was because of that, or because we were sitting so far away, or maybe it's their singing style, or maybe it was the cold, but we never felt like we got a sense of who the band was, or a better understanding of the songs. They're this weird mix of intimate and distant -- not just live, but also on the new album -- and we will say we were a little sorry we never got to see them in a smaller space, where we think we might have been able to bridge that gap a little better.
But it really was a very fun show -- though we'd warn you to bring gloves along as well. As the girl behind us on her cell phone was rapturously saying afterwards, "There were violins and the lead singer sounds just like Bruce Springsteen!"