Wow, I actually can't believe I hadn't seen Arcade Fire live in SIX WHOLE YEARS before this gig! The main reason being that I wasn't a huge fan of Neon Bible or The Suburbs but this all changed when they bought out their fourth album Reflektor last month. Funeral is undoubtedly one of the best indie rock albums of the 21st Century, I love it dearly but over the years I felt the band had become more poppy. Reflektor came out and it was like an indie, disco, dancing explosion and I love it!
After a guerilla marketing campaign for the new album, Arcade Fire have been doing a small string of last minute 'intimate' shows under the band name The Reflektors and when the news of 2 nights at The Roundhouse was broken I was very excited. I'd only ever seen the band at festivals, twice at Reading Festival (2005 and 2007) and once at Glastonbury (2007) so I was looking forward to seeing them at a proper show especially in one of London's nicer venues. Having read reviews of their previous shows on this tour I knew we were in for something a little different. First of all their was a dress code in place, strictly formal or fancy dress. Lily and I chose to dress in our finest. By finest I mean that I wore my trust black sparkly velvet dress, leather jacket and creepers topped off with a random mask I found on top of my bookshelf. The audience looked amazing because everyone had made the effort to dress up, there was a really party vibe and it made you feel like there was a real sense of occasion. On arrival at the venue we were greeted with a mariachi band which really got everyone in the mood for dancing.
As gigs go it was quite short, around 90 minutes long but this was something we were expecting. The band have been playing the majority of their new album on this tour with a few old favourites thrown in for good measure. From the back catalogue we were treated to Power Out (my personal favourite track of theirs), Sprawl II, Haiti and Crown of Love, all performed superbly. For me the new album is full of songs that sound so much better live, that's not saying they don't sound great on the record but because they're quite dancey they sound a lot more intense in a live setting. Normal Person, Joan or Arc and Here Comes The Night Time were highlights for me. It was a great gig, one of the best I've been to this year and I cannot wait to see them next year for more dancing. I'm already counting 3 times at least in 2014 (Primavera, Earls Court and Glastonbury). Arcade Fire, what a truly superb band!
Are you a fan of the new album x
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Such a good night! x
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