Arcade Fire - London ULU - 17/3/05
4/5
By: Sabuhi Mir
Arcade Fire: so far, and exhaustively, wowed the British music press with their debut album on Rough Trade - the cheerily titled 'Funeral' - and acquired an impressive fanbase, including the two Davids: Byrne and Bowie. Surprising, considering the general morbid premise behind their album: a tribute to the band's family members who died whilst making the record.
But this doesn't seem to deter the sold-out audience tonight at ULU, and the communal presence of the esteemed Arcade Fire cast: Win and Will Butler, Régine Chassagne, Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury, Sarah Neufeld, Jeremy Gara.
It's some line-up. And the Fire - to their friends - have already played to a sold-out crowd at King's College London, a week earlier, in we which fans were begging, borrowing and stealing to get a look in. For the rest of us; they embark on a full UK tour in May later this year.
For their second ever British show, these Canadians sure know how to confuse a crowd, exhibiting and playing a plethora of instruments: xylophones, marching drums, keyboards and looking scarily possessed while doing so. The overall melange? Very much reminiscent of Mercury Rev spliced with the Kermit The Frog pretensions of Neil Young.
It's a set which alternates between extreme, harrowing and haunting melody, jamming, and death-like silence, which caught a few pissed-up students and an engrossed Brett Anderson searingly off-guard. (And it was this former said-student that we caught shouting quite loudly for a pint, priced £1.40, and found later complaining that it was a bit hot in the venue... Is it really the same Brett Anderson who brought us the delightful 'So Young', with those immortal words: '... So young and so gone, let's chase the dragon, oh, let's chase the dragon...').
On to the band, again, though; the fineries which dwell with us even hours later are definitely 'Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out)', with its chunky percussion, and strained howling from Will Butler, and the stratospheric finale, which stretched longer than a Jimmy Page solo - 'Rebellion (Lies)'. To note that this is just the start of something truly iconic would be but to provide a cutting, gross understatement.
Artists in this article: Arcade Fire
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