Review: Arcade Fire- Earls Court 06/06/14
10 years on from releasing their stunning debut album Funeral, Montreal based Arcade Fire have established quite a name for themselves. They’ve churned out 4 mesmerising albums, soundtracked an Oscar winning movie, and bagged themselves a Glastonbury headline slot. And the time came on Friday for the 10-piece to play their biggest ever UK show. The band graced Earls Court, which has previously hosted the likes of Arctic Monkeys, the Rolling Stones and the Foo Fighters.
So now that they’ve reached the same “legend status”, what could they do to impress a 20,000 strong crowd? They could have left the drab venue as it was, stuck the letters “AF” above the stage, and played their set there from start to finish. But they’re not lazy. Arcade Fire pulled out all the stops to make this one of the most visually and musically spectacular gigs I have ever been too.
The effort put into the set rivalled the likes of Muse and Coldplay’s live shows. Requesting that everyone wore fancy dress meant that the audience was a sea of sequins, glitter and Venetian masks. Disco balls hung from the ceiling, strings of fairy lights were suspended at all corners, and the stage itself was like one giant explosion of neon, sequins, mirrors and confetti.
Opening with 2013’s Reflektor’s disco-infused title track, the band had the audience going absolutely ballistic from the word go. Pits erupted everywhere; not so much mosh pits, but dance pits. There were lights and mirrors galore and the energy the band, and the audience alike, transmitted was unmatchable.
This was the case for the entirety of the set, as we were treated to fantastic tracks from Reflektor, as well as a generous amount from Funeral, including three out of four of the beautiful Neighbourhood series. There was also plenty from The Suburbs including the title track, which frontman Win Butler introduced by saying “We wanted to do Earls Court before they tear it down for condos. Get your bids in now. Hope they're cheap."
Neon Bible, the band’s second album, didn’t get much of a look-in aside from fan favourite No Cars Go and a gorgeous acapella snippet of My Body Is A Cage.
The band also welcomed Echo and the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch to the stage to perform The Cutter as a duet with Win.
The highlight of the set, however, had to be Win and wife Regine Chassagne’s beautiful performance of It’s Never Over (Oh Orpheus). The pair dueted across the arena; Win on the main stage, and Regine on a secondary stage in the centre, surrounded by dancing skeletons. The crowd was silenced as the pair locked eyes and sang in perfect time over the spectators.
They closed the main set with Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains), sung beautifully by Regine and accompanied by quirky dance moves and ribbon waving. An encore followed, introduced by a Mariachi band donned in papier-mâché heads and covering The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony. The band played Normal Person, and the carnival-esque Here Comes The Night Time, during which they set off a gigantic confetti cannon. This provoked the most dancing of the evening, and the crowd looked absolutely elated.
Their two hour set was wrapped up with Wake Up, to which the chorus was sung over and over as the band were filing out and the lights went up. It was a fantastic finish and in all honesty I think that the crowd would have been happy to see them to play for a further two hours.
They are sure to do an excellent job of headlining Glastonbury and Hyde Park this summer and I can assure you that if you’re due to see them you will be far from disappointed.
