Arcade Fire: United Palace Theatre, NYC. 5/5/07

Monday night was not only the 1st time I’ve seen Arcade Fire, but it was the first time I’ve ventured into Harlem in at least a decade. There’s something I like about Harlem. It feels like a real city. I know it’s part of Manhattan, but it feels like another world when you compare it to the rest of the island. But, that’s not what I’m here to write about.

Opening for Arcade Fire was The National. I was attending the concert with my girlfriend and by the time we go to the venue (an amazing old theatre) we had missed the first song or two of their set. I had not heard of the band prior to the show, but I ended up enjoying the performance. I actually ended up picking up a copy of their last album, Alligator. That was the first time I’ve gone to a concert and purchased an album of an opened I’d never heard of prior to the show. With the new Björk album coming out on Tuesday I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet. I’ll get to it. The band played about a 45-minute set, which was just right. The singer had a very Ian Curtis/ Paul Banks sound to his voice. It worked well with the music, which was your typical indie-rock offering.

Arcade Fire came on stage to what appeared to be a recording of a female preacher. The kind of preacher you don’t see up north, the kind that looks absolutely nuts on stage, running around and screaming and just giving Christians a bad name. I’m not pointing out denominations, but I think you get the picture. There was a whole religious theme to the stage, with a prop-organ, and some lit up bible silhouettes. It wouldn’t be a stretch to see the connection to Neon Bible.

Highlights of the show included:

No Cars Go: I absolutely love this song. I have the original Arcade Fire ep, and No Cars Go was easily my favorite song of that ep, or the first album. That fact they re-released it, and made it better just blows my mind. Live the song was even better than on record.

Ocean of Noise: I wasn’t crazy about this track as it was recorded on Neon Bible, but live this song really took off. With the tremolo on the guitar it had this great 50s/60s surf-guitar vibe to it.

The band ended the main set with: Keep The Car Running, (Antichrist Television Blues), Neighborhood #3 (Power Out), and Rebellion (Lies). It was amazing. They could have stopped right there. They didn’t need an encore. In fact there was no way for them to top it. They did come back with an encore, but it didn’t really live up to the last 4 songs played.

I really enjoyed the show. As I mentioned above I had not seem them before, although I had seen them on TV a few times, and was disappointed each time. The last four songs really did it for. I had terrible seats for this show. They were hands down the worst seats to any concert I’ve been to in probably 4 years. It didn’t really matter though. The band put on such a great show that I was up out of my seat doing my best not to dance (I must maintain my indie-credibility, and I would’ve embarrassed my gf). One last thing about the show. It was much easier to tell the weaker songs from the strong performed live. I think the new album is good, not as amazing as Funeral, but good enough to recommend to a friend. Of all the songs played from Funeral, they were spot on. They band had the energy, the crowd was providing more energy, they were just draw droppingly good songs. The songs from Neon Bible that were pretty good on record came out great live. But the songs that were a bit weaker, came across as flat. The band just didn’t have it for some of the songs. I don’t what happened. That’s it, here is a set list. Courtesy of Us Kids Know.


Black Mirror,
No Cars Go
Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
Haiti
Black Wave/Bad Vibration
Neon Bible
Windowsill
The Well And The Lighthouse
Ocean Of Noise
Keep The Car Running
(Antichrist Television Blues)
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
Rebellion (Lies)

Encore:
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Intervention

Trying to save money sucks...

Especially when you buy music like I did this week. I don't normally go crazy like I did this week, but I ended up with 3 eps, 4 full lengths & one 7". Here's a quick run-down of what I picked up.

Arcade Fire - "Neon Bible" This is a winner. I got the "deluxe edition" which came with a couple of flip books to play around with. Because I hate the annoying contrived "behind the scenes" DVD's that usually come with "deluxe editions" the flip books really impressed me. And the music blew me away. Too many excellent tracks to listed 'em all.

Air - "Pocket Symphony" I'm not crazy about this album. It's not as pop oriented as their last few albums. It feels like a throw back to earlier Air albums. One thing I can't fault them for is having Jarvis Cocker sing on a track. If I could have any singers voice it would be his.

Darkel - "Darkel" This is Jean Benoit Dunkel's (of Air) solo project. This did sound like the last 3 Air albums. If given a choice or this album or the new Air album, pick this one instead. If I had bought it when it came out last year, I probably would have dropped it into my 10 Favorite List.

New Order - "BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert" a lala trade, but worth it. You really can't go wrong with New Order.

Pelican - "March into the Sea" It may only be a two song ep, but it is so good I can understand why someone would want to name their blog after it. It's like post-rock meets metal; Post-Metal?

Mum - "Dusk Log" I accidentally bought this. I thought it was something else. But, it is still excellent. Only complaint is that the disc is a 3" disc, not a 5", which means I can't play it in my car or on my PowerBook. I'll have to copy it in another computer, and then put the copy on my PB.

The Flaming Lips - "Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell" I love this. There are 3 really good remixes on here, as well as 4 new tracks. Being "Yoshimi" era Flaming Lips, the best remix is the T.P.S. remix of "Do You Realize???"

Mogwai/ Magoo - Split 7" : The 45's from 1998, and features Mogwai performing Black Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf," my all time favorite Sabbath track. I've never heard of Magoo, but their cover of "Black Sabbath" is pretty bad ass as well. My only complaint is the boys in Mogwai don't seem to take the singing very seriously.

Hopefully that'll hold me over for the time being. I don't think any new music comes out for at least a week or so. At which point I'll spend more money, and try and justify one way or another.

Arcade Fire Tonight on SNL.

Hey, I know SNL has been a bit week this season but don't miss tonight. Rainn Wilson from The Office will be on, as well as Arcade Fire. Hopefully Arcade Fire will only play 1 new song, and 1 old. I'd rather not hear too much of the new album before it comes out.