The Arcade Fire
By Emily Trinks
Monday. Jun 04, 3:51 PM
live at The Chicago Theatre (Chicago, IL) May 19th, 2007.

The Arcade Fire put on a Damn Good Live Show. Yes, they write good songs, and yes they make very nice studio albums, but those are really not why they’ve managed to float to the top of the loathsomely-referred-to “indie rock scene” / have their current North American tour sold out (mostly 2,000 to 5,000 capacity venues). It’s because they put on a Damn Good Live Show.

It’s not so much that they play songs, but that they perform them. There’s energy, exuberance, passion, and just a touch of melodrama. As an audience member, you just know you’re seeing something great, and you are fascinated because it just might spin out of control into something even more exciting. And unlike other bands whose live shows I enjoy due to my own fondness for the occasional rockstar posturing and obnoxiousness, these are empirically Damn Good Live Shows.

And on May 19th, the band put another one on at Chicago Theatre. They played a solid hour set with a two-song encore (closing with a killer “Rebellion (Lies)”), featuring a good mix from both their current Neon Bible and 2004’s Funeral, a balanced selection from the rambunctious tracks (“Power Out,” “Intervention,” the aforementioned “Rebellion (Lies)”) as well as the quieter ones (frontwoman Regine Chassagne’s gems “In the Backseat” and “Haiti”), plus a bit of frontman Win Bulter postulating on the ghosts of fornicating Cats trapped in the theatre for good measure. The crowd was into it: a mix of really! excited! superfans! and older people who seemed curious to find out what the kids were into these days.

I suppose, as the venues get bigger (or maybe just fancier, because there had to have been more people in Grant Park at Lollapalooza in August 2005 than in The Chicago Theater in May 2007), the wildness must be kept on a tighter leash. Butler didn’t jump into the crowd, Richard Parry and Tim Kingsbury didn’t beat each other silly with drumsticks or wear the “percussion helmet” (but I did see it on stage right), and there was no impromptu second encore in the lobby. But that’s okay, and no one seemed to mind, because, really, it still was a Damn Good Live Show.
www.arcadefire.com

Emily Trinks

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