Photo by Wes Muilenburg
The Breeders played a decent 12 song set. This included a cover of the Beatles's "Happiness is a Warm Gun" and the Pixies' "Gigantic." The performances was solid - all four band members are consummate professionals at this point in their long careers. However, the set was marred by some weak sound engineering and by the fact that the band had their backs to 75% of the audience. So much for an in-the-round experience.
The main show was kicked off when the band came in through a tunnel, a la any sports team. It was supposed to be a boxing joke. "Everything Now" has proven to be an excellent opener and it did not disappoint. The smaller crowd was instantaneously engaged, singing along without any hesitation. Usually, the audience doesn't sing part of a song back to the band until later in the show - at an Arcade Fire concert, it takes around three minutes.
The first half of the set consisted of alternating slow-fast songs. Old classics "Rebellion (Lies)" and "No Cars Go" were thrown in among the more gentle songs ("Signs of Life," "Haiti," "Here Comes the Night Time"). All these songs maintained the intense energy the band started with while managing to give the audience some breathers. As great as a set of just "No Cars Go" would be, the crowd would probably pass out after four or five repetitions. People can't handle that much catharsis - this ain't a Deafheaven concert!
The strangest moment of the evening (besides a bizarre space cowboy announcer) was when the band decided to perform two of their quietest songs midway through the show. All momentum was halted when lead singer, Win Butler, started singing "Neon Bible." It took a second for the audience to adjust, to say the least. "My Body is a Cage" continued this angry hush before building back up to a slight high. The entire band started to sing along and lights formed an actual cage around the stage.
Photo by Wes Muilenburg
The last four pre-encore songs built up to an utterly electrifying performance of "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)." The crowd lost its collective mind to any tracks from 2004's Funeral, especially this one. Over the course of its five-minute duration, the band crescendoed to a a new high. They offered a quick goodnight and exited the stage afterwards.
It's often an unwritten rule that a band isn't done with their set until they've played their biggest hit. This proved to be the case with Arcade Fire. After only a few minutes of scattered applause and screaming, the band returned to perform "We Don't Deserve Love," from 2017's Everything Now. This segued into an a cappella shout-along of "Everything Now"'s nah-nah-nah chorus, which in turn blended into "Wake Up." Judging by the audience's reaction, this song is the reason that many people came.
It is a truly unique experience to hear around one thousand people scream their voices raw to the same 13-year-old song. Songs like this are a testament to Arcade Fire's incomparable ability to bring people together and unify them in the name of heart-on-sleeve emotion, despite how aloof and meta the band tries to seem nowadays. Butler offered another quick thank you and goodbye before most of the band exited again. However, a few remained, including multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry, and kept shouting the chorus for who knows how long. Sometimes all you can do is yell like hell to the heavens.
Photo by Wes Muilenburg
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