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.