May 8, 2007
Arcade Fire @ DAR Constitution Hall
I’m struggling to remember from point A to point B: I first saw Arcade Fire in a Midwestern college town, right on the heels of the release of Funeral, before their official anointment by every critic in North America. The show had to move from a smaller café to a bigger bar because of ticket demand, but, even still, no more than 70 people showed up. The next time I saw them, in a sold out rock club, the questioning was just beginning: Can they follow this up? Can they put together another great album?
Everyone’s got their own opinion on the new album, but, damn – what a jump this band has made. They are now the biggest band in indie rock, with a stage show big enough to take that claim even further. We’re talking 9 musicians, big screen projections, flashing lights, spooky videos – the works. No more strands of Christmas lights wrapped around a couple mic stands.
But if the band has considerably dressed up their impassioned sound for the bigger stages they appear ready and willing to inherit, it is still indie at its heart, pulsing with a rebellious spirit and an essential weird streak. It was ably performed too; the bigger lineup allows for a more intricate sound that, while occasionally lost in the cavern of Constitution Hall, was intricate without being overwrought. Little touches like violins echoing the backing chorus on “Rebellion (Lies)” and woozy horn accents through some of the new songs.
There will always be complaints about the venue and the sound, but, from the floor, things sounded fine. For those who have seen them before, some things are still the same: multi-instrumentalists Richard Reed Parry and Will Butler still bang away on anything they can get their hands on, Regine Chassagne still emotes like a vaudevillian fairy princess when she sings, and Win Butler is still a great frontman with heart and soul to spare. But, even beyond the budgetary boost and bigger venues, this band seems to have moved on from the smashing success of Funeral and fully embraced their new material. “Black Mirror” sounded almost majestic with its swoops of strings and synths, while “Ocean of Noise” and “Neon Bible” were just plain eerie – fitting for a dark, gothic set highlighted by blood-red lights.
None of this is to say the older stuff has lost its appeal, as “Neighborhood #1”, “Rebellion”, and “Wake Up” still got the biggest response out of the crowd. It’s just that the band plays them more like songs rather than mission statements now. The heavier, new material was actually imbued with a vitality that some of the older favorites may have lacked.
Despite all kinds of funky variables – we’ve heard reports from Section Q that the xylophone sound was terrible up there – it’s safe to say that (besides maybe the double D-Plan shows last month) this was the most anticipated indie rock show of the year. And no matter the sound quality at your seat, that always feels good. So many times you go to see a band “liking what you’ve heard” and curious “to see if they’re any good live." With the Arcade Fire, you’ve read the reviews and heard the albums, you know it’s going to be big and theatrical. So instead, you’d get to enjoy the nervy buzz just before the band takes the stage, knowing everyone in the crowd’s had this date marked since tickets sold out in five minutes. You get to revel in the growing noise just before the band breaks into their next song, you get to dance a little and shout a lot, and generally just enjoy the occasion of seeing a band like the Arcade Fire. Unfortunately, if you're one of those folks who thought DAR was "too big" or "not intimate enough," it's just a little too late.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user emm72, used with permission.
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how was the national? Their new record is the first thing from them I've really dug. Damn sorry I missed this show.
"before they’re official anointment by every critic in North America"
yikes. lead paragraph guys? really?
Good report! I thought the show was freakin' amazing. Also, I was in the very last row and the sound was good there - I was suprised by how responsive the sound people were to shifting the mix during songs to bring forward instruments being drowned out. They never did so mid-phrase, which was nice.
Unfortunately I totally missed the National due to my need to booze (no drinks in the Hall proper - only the lobby)
The National were good, but I think their sound lends a bit better to a smaller, more intimate setting. They looked a little lost and lonely up there, and there was hardly fans there. Of course, I would rather see just about any band at the Black Cat or 9:30 Club.
I thought the National were really good. The theatre wasn't even half full for them and I don't think many in attendance knew who they were, but by the end of there set everyone around me was really into. I think they won over a lot of people with this performance. I can't wait to see them again in June.
Despite the rapidity of the initial sell-out, there seemed to be plenty of tickets to be had on Friday night. Reaching the premises an hour before show-time, ticketless, I did what any seasoned concert-goer would do, I asked at the box-office, with not a small amount of desperation and humility, if there were any on sale. What do you know but I walked out of there with two seats on the floor, fifteen rows back! Later I saw a few lonely indie-kids on the corners of D and C, who had been stood up or turned down and so were looking to get rid of their extras. Quite a different scene from the Widespread Panic concert a month ago at the Warner, where I saw dirty hippies and frat-boys willing to trade anything from drugs to their last pair of Chaco sandals for a chance to get inside.
The National’s new album is going to be tremendous. If they hadn’t been forced on stage so early and had the audience been allowed to drink in their seats, I think the band would have had a larger effect. Look for them to blow the roof off the 9:30 on June 20.
Constitution Hall can be such a deadly venue for crowd enthusiasm, so I was blown away by how well Arcade Fire got the crowd into the show, all things considered. Their set definitely didn't disappoint, though I thought the big anthemic numbers naturally came across better in that space than the more spare, quiet pieces (however "Ocean of Noise" was a highlight for me). Still, I wish like hell I'd seen the 9:30 Club show from the last tour. Probably won't get a chance to see them in a place like that again...
regarding the question about the national, this is the recap that i posted to their board:
So last night was a hell of a time. Constitution Hall is my least favorite venue ever and my tickets were in the last row of the section farthest from the stage...decided to try getting a little closer for the "warm up act." HA!
The performance: Tight! They sounded crisp and well rehearsed. Being in the 2nd row, I couldn't tell how it sounded elsewhere, but up front they sounded unreal.
Happens that the two other biggest National fans in DC were sitting in front of us so we had some fun with the band between songs. Yelling things like "Obey the petition" and "Why do you hate D.C.?" (inside joke for those of you who have not heard the story discussed with Matt here... www.dcist.com/archives/2006/10/25/dcists_secret_m.php ).
Anyway, Matt seemed to get a kick out of it and we weren't yelling during songs so we kept it up and were "those guys" a little...oh well. The venue filled up quickly after they started so I'd imagine they made quite a few new fans. Matt thanked the crowd and gave a special thanks to everyone that stole the new album (more on this later). When Matt thanked the Arcade Fire for bringing them along after the 2nd song someone on the floor a little ways back yelled "we came for YOU!" which elicited a HUGE ovation.
So after the show, Matt grabbed two setlists and handed them to the 4 of us and decided to chat for a while. TOTALLY COOL OF HIM! The house lights were on, rest of band backstage...One of the two people we'd just met asked if he'd mind a photo and he was like "oh, why don't I hop down off the stage for it." We talked for about 5 minutes and some highlights:
* I told him the new album was great and apologized for "stealing" it but promised I'd buy it when it comes out. His response was that after 8 years of trying to win fans over it's not such a terrible thing to have a group of people that WANT to steal the album. He seemed genuinely excited about the pending release. He loved the idea that people knew and were singing along to the new stuff.
* I asked him if he was aware of the petition and he said "yeah...i heard something about that...they want us to play Lucky You or something." I asked if there was any chance and he sort of changed the subject. That was a follow up to the other guy asking about some old songs that he'd been requesting during the set...Matt, understandably, explained that they only have so many rehearsed so it might be tough (he was requesting some pretty obscure stuff)
* They don't hate D.C.!
* Matt was really excited about how many people obviously came to see them.
* We all shared our excitement regarding the upcoming show at the 930 club on June 20th!
Anyway, it was a really great time. Everything you've read about him being a genuine and down to earth guy is true.
The Arcade Fire blew the roof off the place, by the way. And I was able to join my new friends in the front row for their set (quite an upgrade). Anyone that has a chance to see them absolutely must. While I prefer listening to the National, Arcade Fire live is something on a whole other level.
Setlist:
Start A War
Mistaken For Strangers
Slow Show
Secret Meeting
Abel
Squalor Victoria
Apt. Storty
Fake Empire
Mr. November
About Today
Wilson-
I am glad that you got tickets, sincerely. But that story made my super yummy lunch of comfort food grilled cheese turn in my stomach.. WHAT? I said, WHAT? Can you explain why there were tickets at the box office (not talking about said indie boys scalping on the side). I am pissed, sincerely. Who is to blame for these shenanigans---DAR, Ticketmaster, Me? I wish I had done what you did.
No mention of the delicious Canadian bird in hotpants playing the fiddle? What gives?
It's not uncommon for venues to suddenly release tickets just hours before a show starts. I'm assuming this is because of tickets there were unclaimed by VIPs, radio stations and others the record label wanted to comp for being such nice people. Probably more common at a place like the Verizon Center. At least that's the kind of place I'm always hearing about when people say they got last-minute tickets.
There were TEN musicians performing for Arcade Fire, TEN TEN TEN not nine. I remember because I counted them 5 or 6 times while thinking "damn, thats a big assed band. TEN.
DCist - you are professionals now (ha!) so do your homework.
The myth of miracle tickets being sold an hour or so before showtime is one I have been hearing for a while. This was the first time the dream came true, and once I had the tickets I wasn't going to ask questions or wait for someone to take them from me.
Although some part of me wants to give credit to the Arcade Fire, I know it was due more to dumb luck and perfect timing.
There were definitely ten musicians. I was in the third row, dead center.
Lead singer dude
Chunky blonde dude
Thin blonde dude
Female lead singer
Violinist in shorts
Violinist in skirt
French horn dude
Dude next to the French Horn
Drummer dude
Tall redheaded dude
Hi there. My name is Neon Bible and I am boring. Nice to meet you.
the last minute ticket phenomenon happened to me about eight or nine years ago with radiohead during the second night of their show at radio city music hall. i had kind of terrible tickets, so i thought i'd give it a shot, and walked up to the box office 30 minutes before showtime. i ended up paying face value for tickets that were *in the pit*, like, literally the closest seats in the whole venue. definitely worth trying.
Holding back tickets for any show, particularly in a large venue, is common practice. I used to be the box office manager for an organization that performed at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, and even for the most absolutely, positively, don't-even-think-about-getting-tickets shows we had, there were still at least 30-40 tickets held back for emergencies or other purposes. The fewest tickets I ever had in my pocket before a concert to deal with those situations was about a dozen once, and having only that many tickets in reserve for a hall that seats 2500 made me extremely nervous. We considered anything over 97% of the house sold to be a "sellout". And, yes, sometimes we'd release some of those extra tickets at the zero hour once we were sure we wouldn't need them.
People assume that box office work is an exact science, an exact number of tickets available for an exact number of seats, but that's actually pretty far from the reality.
After last week's Eastern Market and Georgetown library headlines, I had a moment of fear at seeing "Fire @ DAR Constitution Hall" in the DCist RSS feed.
I just wanted to say that.