Arcade Fire @ Judson Memorial Church: The New Future Bible Heroes

Oh, brothers and sisters. Where do I start? It's been an intense eight hours sense I left my house to witness the best band in modern music. This is one of the posts where the show itself is half the story.

As you all know, even if you are outside of the greater New York metropolitan area, the Canadian outfit called the Arcade Fire are playing five nights in a church near NYU. They've also done this feat in London and in their home base of Montreal. Tens of thousands of people tried to get admittance into these show. I would guess 500-600 succeeded, with about a handful getting in by waiting in line in near zero temperatures.

In the end, we were all treated to a show for the ages. It reassured me why I go to shows, sacrifice my free time and obsesses over music week after week. It makes you feel fucking alive.

I attended night two, and here's your setlist:

• No Cars Go
• Haiti
• Black Mirror
• Keep the Car Running
• Anitchrist Television Blues
• Black Wave
• My Body Is a Cage
• Windowsill
• The Well & The Lighthouse
• Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
• Rebellion (Lies)
• Intervention
• Encore: Oceans of Noise
• Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)

Arcade Fire is the best thing to happen to music since Radiohead decided to ditch Pablo Honey. Also, they are the best thing out of Canada since cheap perscription drugs.

Now that we can put the Arcade Fire's ascension into perspective since their 2004 debut, the reason that they are loved by myself and people like you is that they are creating music that's unique, groundbreaking, different and that of us can understand on a subliminal level. The majority of their songs on Funeral and a few on their new album, Neon Bible, are about defiance in the face of adversity, sadness or oppression. During tonight's performance, lead singer Win Butler said something along the lines of that we are at a crossroads, we can either all go to hell or be triumphant and make change. He wishes there's a little bit of hope out there. Take that as you will, I think it's obvious that it's about current state of world politics.

Just on a musical level, there are the best musicians in music, period. There's not a even a genre you can pinpoint them to. It's somewhere between theatrical, chamber music, rock gospel and guitar rock. Whatever it is they are doing, I'll go with it. The new album (which I got legally as an advance, ahem) is very much in the Arcade Fire mold, lots of big, grandious choruses and foot stomping beats. With all the musical instruments, from strings, accordions, percussions, acoustic guitars and synths, they clash together in a immensely invigorating cocktail. They started with my semi-new favorite track on the album, "No Cars Go." Then you hear "Keep the Car Running" and one must think they have a thing with automobiles. With the bible theme and how this album was recorded in a church, you get the feeling that the band is a like a group of traveling preachers.

Now the reason these small venue shows are in such high demand are they are an incredible live act. They give a 100% of themselves into their shows, no matter what city, venue or size of crowd. Like a great football team during the playoffs, they leave everything on the field -- play a show like it's your last concert ever. Win, who's been ill for a month, sweats and grunts his way through every song. His wife Regine is dancer of the band. Meanwhile, brother William is the maniac. During the SummerStage show in 2005 (sorry, lost the pics when I changed web hosts), he was just beating the shit out of the cymbals to the point that he knocked himself out.

Also this being Valentine's Day, Win explained that he and Regine don't celebrate. Man, did she shoot him a look. Someone sleeping on a cot tonight. Win also told a story about how he took a nap this afternoon and dreamt that he was handing out wristbands to get in. He just threw them in the air, but everyone around didn't pick them up. You can interpret that on you're own.

Tonight's show was not on that level on intensity where security has to protect the crowd from the band. The band was on a relatively small stage and just didn't have the room to break things. None the less, the sound they projected is a swift punch across the face. If they are giving 100%, I'm going to give 100% of myself to show how fucking awesome they are. My friends texted me from the show on Tuesday to say how the band rocked, but the crowd was pathetic. I took it upon myself to scream my head off, pump my fist and live in the moment. When "Lights Out" came on, I really want to tear down the barricade and bum rush the show. I felt the power of the Lord taking over my body. I'm a believer. Always have been. Richard Reed Perry did note that tonight's crowd was way better then the night before. You knows it, man. I tried to reprazent for the peoples.

This was a special show for me because I never got to see them in a small venue. A lot of people didn't get into the show. My thought: you loose some, but down the line you'll get into show that others didn't get into. Believe me, I've had my share of shows that I couldn't get into, like the early Arcade Fire shows. This was my second time seeing them, so it's just fortunate I can see them before they start playing stadiums, which they have already since they opened for U2.

I have absolutely no complaints about the show. Sure, they didn't play much off Funeral, but I've seen them play that already, the new material is just as good. When they come around again in the spring, I'm sure they'll mix in old and new.

There you have it, I can be a happy man on this Valentine's Day.

Okay, now the other side to this post. The past two days, the New York/New Jersey got its first significant snow fall of the winter. This is one of those shows where you needed to get there early to secure a good spot against the railing ... or that's what I thought. I took the day off from my cracker factory job to get there early. I woke up this morning and saw the 3-5 inches of snow. Then comes the high winds rattling my windows and sleet hitting the streets, making everything a mess. I was dreading leaving the house. With the wind chill, it was about 3 degrees.

I got in line 5:15 because I'm just a paranoid guy. I wanted to be close to the stage so I can feel the immediacy of the band. So all the complaints I have I brought on myself. I bundled up pretty well, and the snow finally stopped, but the concrete outside the church was frozen, thus no amount of thick socks was going to keep my feet warm. 95% of my body was fine, but my feet were making me shake uncontrollably. The doors opened at 7:30 and some lucky hardcore fans got in who missed out on the initial sales.

When I made my way to the room, I was zonked. All the energy was drained from my body. I'm sure everyone else felt the same way. It that type of bad weather that doesn't put you in the mood to rock out. You just want to get warm, drink cocoa and then take a nap. So if the crowd was a bit lackluster, it's understandable. I think it was decent considering the circumstances, although Win had to spur the crowd on.

As turns out, I could have gotten there at 7pm and still got upfront. I know, I'm just wired in a dumb way.

I had a few objectives for the show, don't slip on anything and get to the church safely (check), get in line early (done), get up front (done), have the best time (check), don't fuck up me knee again (all good) and the last thing, if I may self-promote, give Win Butler the first ever MusicSnobbery.com brand guitar pick. One of my best friends, who designed my banner and blog cards, came up with the idea to brand a bunch of guitar picks that I could hand out.

After the show, Win came back up to mingle. I went up to him as I was going out. I said hi, awesome show, can I give you this guitar pick with my blog address on it. He looks at and gives a good laugh. Whether he uses it, that's another story.

I didn't stick around for any post-show improtu performance.

One of things I didn't do today was look at reviews on blogs or message boards to see how the first show went. I wanted to come without any preconceived notions. So if you're going to the other three shows, I'll just say you'll come out feeling like you can take on the world. Right now, I'm going to take on some sleep.

Comments

[Dayna]

"The doors opened at 7:30 and some lucky hardcore fans got in who missed out on the initial sales."

Well I feel stupid. I totally considered doing that, then...didn't. I think I'm just destined to NEVER see them live. If I miss them at Coachella, I'm giving up for good.

Sounds fabulous. Thanks for sharing.

Dayna,
The lucky fans had been waiting in the cold for a while. You still have three days to try - they do release tickets - but you should probably get there at least a couple of hours in advance. At least.

[Dayna]

Yeah, I'd have gotten there around 5:30 if I went Tuesday/yesterday. But I've got Imogen Heap tonight and I can't do the Friday/early Saturday thing, so I just suck :P