THE BAND REIGNED SUPREME IN THE LAST OF A FOUR NIGHT STAND AT BRIXTON ACADEMY.
The ten piece Montreal collective conquered Brixton with a powerfully epic performance in a week when “Neon Bible” entered the US and UK charts at number two.
Arcade Fire confirmed their reputation as the best live act Today, revalidating the Rober Award they won for their shows in 2005, alongside the ones for Best Band and song of the year. They haven’t lose any of their energy, creativity and ambition since. Win Butler still stands as an assured mp within a solid multi-instrumentist combo.
The audience went mad with the tracks of “Funeral”, although the majority of the set was based on their sophomore work. “Keep the car running”; “No Cars Go”, the opener “Black Mirror” and “Intervention” stood up among the tracks of an excellent album that, even paling in comparison with the former, is taking the band to a more mainstream level of recognition.
In just a few weeks, they have gone from the cosy, carefully chosen small churches, halls and venues where they launched “Neon Bible” to play in large arenas; reinventing epic rock in their way and shaping themselves quickly for the next level: stadiums, which will surely happen after next June’s headlining at Glastonbury.
An elegant stage with the Neon bible logo projected red curtains; four big red boxes with white TV screens, showing neon bible website’s imaginery and some color-changing fluorescent posts as the only decorations saw the band confidently covering their story to date, ending with two encores. The last one of them was a cover of The Clash’s “Guns of Brixton” in acoustic mode; all together singing and playing, while the audience clapped the rythm of “We Will rock you”. And that pretty much reflects the moment Arcade Fire is going through: snobs are already forecasting their downfall as the next U2 or Oasis, but for the moment being the signs are simply inequivocal: They are the best band in the planet.
The only flaw in an otherwise excellent night was the sound; rare in artists with so much attention to every detail of their output. It was already an issue weeks ago in St. John’s church and, although considerably better, Brixton Academy devilish reverberation was not kind to a band with too much going on at the same time (adding strings, brass, and even a Church Organ to the typical rock formation). At times a very messy wall of sound came in the way to fully appreciate the songs. But not even that seemed to prevent people from singing along and enjoy themselves to the max.
We just can hope that when the new royalties’ check arrives, they’ll wisely invest it hiring an experienced live sound engineer.
Some videos of their performances at Brixton Academy:
Watch the band closing last night’s show with a very appropiated acoustic version of The Clash’s “Guns of Brixton”: