Completely life affirming. I was so geared up for this gig and it exceded every expectation. I think it was better than their gig at the Electric Picnic in 2005.
Before meeting the awesome Screamer McLikes-It and her cohorts Sarah Kiss and Keeva/Caoimhe,
I was listening to Arcade Fire being interviewed on Dave Fanning and listening to Neon Bible and just getting so excited. Then I met the girlies in the Foggy Dew where there was more Arcade Fire being played, and then we headed to the Olympia. I had guestlist for the Upper Circle, but we all managed to get into standing for some reason and were quite near the front before the gig. Caught up with Gavin Friday at the bar who thinks 'Neon Bible' is better than 'Funeral'. I have to say, I'm coming around to his way of thinking. Anyway, we had missed Patrick Wolf, but it didn't matter. When AF came on, the place went CRAZY, No Cars Go, and then a host of songs from Neon Bible. The logo from the album cover was projected on to the kickdrum, and band members were just appearing from all quarters.
By the time they started playing material from Funeral, everyone was losing their minds. I got swept towards the front and was off the ground for a while. 'My Body Is A Cage' (video to come) was amazing, the whole stage went red. Regine seemed to be enjoying herself, and Win was thanking people for coming. When they went off stage, the crowd were louder than ever, screaming "we want more." When they came back on, Win said "from backstage it sounded like you guys were chanting - 'we want Bush'" and everyone, predictably, booed. Then they played 'Wake Up' (video to come) and I saw grown men cry. Then went off stage again and came back on to play Laika.
The whole evening was just so amazing. I suppose because the crowd was brilliant, and the new material is brilliant and the anticipation, and the thoughts that no one will ever see Arcade Fire in such a small venue again (I love The Olympia) and the fact that this was an event. I was sweating buckets and my head thumping, we had to bail to Thomas Reeds for pints of water. And then I went home.
I'll upload a couple of crappy videos later.
:)
Una
7 comments:
Pretty amazing performances on both nights by the sound of things. The crowd really were going MENTAL, I don't think I've seen that for a long long time.
People were even more fired up for it than Radiohead in Marlay Park.
Yeah, crazy stuff. Amazing though. Everyone was just so up for it. It has probably taken the edge of the prospect of seeing them at Oxegen.
Oxegen can't possibly top it. Set'll be shorter and the crowd will be made up more of the curious rather than the hardcore.
Met pretty much all of them last night, got the scoop on why no EP off of Jeremy. Far more mundane than evil MCD and lockout contracts. They've got really fond memories of playing EP last time.
yo Ian, how did you get to meet them, that's cool. Yeah, I predict the Oxegen set will be nowhere near as quality as this - how could it! Plus sound is always pretty poor at Oxegen.
Afer I met you I headed down the alley by the stage door to head for my car and spotted Jeremy having a smoke and talking to a couple of people.
I said hi and said I'd enjoyed the gigs and while we were talking Win and Tim came out. A pretty large crowd startd to gather at that point but they were really cool and were happy to chat to anyone and sign whatever. Win in partcular was great about it.
Eventually almost all of them (bar Richard and the horn players) came out.
I'm almost never one for the autograph thing except for vinyl but I caved into the overwhelming peer pressure. These are the results:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a71/ihwright/ianisafanboy.jpg
oops link fixed
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