Arcade Fire
Astoria, London, 9 May 2005
Review
Snapshot:
Frustrated by Arcade Fire's second consecutive European tour that skips
Ireland, Cluas.com's Ian Wright took a trip to London to catch their biggest
headlining gig to date and found that Montreal's finest easily surpass the hype
that's surrounded them. For him, life may never be the same again.
The CLUAS Verdict?
9.5 out of 10
Full review: The Astoria is a nasty venue. It's run down and looks like it's
about a week away from being boarded up, the bar only sells beer in cans and the
black paint that is on everything in the place that could be painted, and as a
result helps to turn the venue into a sweltering sweatbox, really needs to be
redone. Admittedly there's a pretty good view of the stage from every point in
the room so long as you aren't stuck behind the sound desk but it really does
make you appreciate how good people here in Ireland have it with the far
prettier surroundings of the similarly sized Olympia. Nonetheless the Astoria is
where I am tonight and there is nowhere on earth that I'd rather be at this
particular moment in time. And it certainly seems that I'm not the only one in
that frame of mind.
Perhaps it's just the way that things are done in London but I've never before
seen such a scramble for tickets to a sold out concert in all of my gig-going
days. Touts are roaming the local tube stations and bars loudly announcing that
they'll pay a very good price for tickets, fans with a genuine look of
desperation in their eyes are standing in the middle of the footpath shouting
"Does anyone PLEASE have a spare ticket" and, if the rumours are to be believed,
there's also a waiting list of 140 celebrities of various degrees of fame who
have failed to scrounge themselves a pass.
And what exactly is it that all these people are so desperate to get a ticket
for? Why am I standing here with a group of indie kid haircuts to the left of me
and a middle aged guy who is in no position to do much with what's left of his
hair and his partner to my right? Why has one of the people I'm with tonight
made the trip from Lyon to be here, for that matter why have I Ryanaired it over
from Dublin? The answer to all these questions is the same, The Arcade Fire; and
yes, they are as good as we've been told they are.
From the moment the drums kicked in to introduce "Neighbourhood #2 (Laika)"
until Reginne Chassagne, the band's occasional lead
singer/keyboardist/drummer/accordionist/glockenspieler (or is it glockenspielist)
closed the set with "In The Backseat", and during the 10 songs in-between;
including 2, "No Cars Go" and "Old Flame" from the 2003's self-titled E.P., the
Arcade Fire managed to hold 1,600 enraptured people in the palms of their hands.
Over the course of the night the band gave a performance, which featured stellar
renditions of "Wake Up", "Une Annee Sans Lumiere" and "Rebellion (Lies)";
Richard Parry, the band's Napoleon Dynamite look-alike, whacking everything in
his vicinity (including a motorcycle helmet) with drum sticks (and he's not even
the drummer); and frontman Win Butler, in between frequent (well, 3) trips into
the audience, musing on the need to remove the Queen from the Canadian $20 bill
and replace her with and ice-hockey player and the inherent evilness and
viciousness of parrots.
And then, a little before 10:30pm, it was over. And it was horrible because it had
been so wonderful. I was almost prepared to hop on a plane to Amsterdam to catch
them again 2 days later.
One thing is for sure, hype and hyperbole aside this is a very special band and
when they make their debut Irish show at the Electric Picnic in September you
really should go out of your way to be there.
Ian Wright
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