Little Gun has finally gotten to me. I saw Arcade Fire live and let me tell you something: they enjoy playing music. A lot. The energy that came out of their live show was something you just have to experience for yourself.
Before I delve into Arcade Fire's performance, I'll give a brief overview of LCD Soundsystem's opening act. I missed all but the last half of LCD's set as it took a while to get to the island, and the Texas-Okalahoma game was still too close to leave. While we may have missed some of their stuff, what I saw was just great. The one song I wanted to hear, "All My Friends," was fantastic. Here's a video of their performance of "Yeah," one of the night's highlight songs:
I didn't expect the look of a middle-aged high school science teacher when I saw LCD, but they put on a great performance. I really enjoyed everything they played, even though I'm way less-versed in their catalog.
Aracade Fire, on the other hand, I know quite well. Their performance, while entertaining and enthusiastic, was a little disappointing to me. For one, I could not stop looking at Régine Chassagne and her annoying, over dramatic posturing. Now don't get me wrong, I think she's great and adds a lot to the band, but she also takes away a lot of the attention with her Bjork-like antics and distracting activities. For example, her performance on "Haiti" was incredible, but then she had to go and run around stage whenever she wasn't playing an instrument or singing. I have to admit, even when she was singing, she would turn her head and look sideways at the audience with this ridiculous smirk...I know, I'm crazy, but it drove me absolutely nuts.
However, her husband and lead member of the band, Win Butler, was amazing. He announced that this would be the last time they play here for a few years so I'm going to guess this was a pretty epic show for them. His stage presence and command of the band was felt throughout the audience as he cycled through favorite after favorite (although, what's not a favorite off their first two albums?). To finish this great night, they played the crowd pleaser "Wake Up," which was as amazing as I had hoped. Someone caught it with some pretty good audio, so enjoy:
Overall, it was a performance to remember and one of the most beautiful nights of the year in New York City. Here's to hoping it won't be years until Arcade Fire returns.
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