Here's a slightly different perspective of that same Arcade Fire show in-the-round from Lauren Armstrong:
Arcade Fire is one of those bands where upon discovery, I wanted to buy thousands of CDs so I could take to the streets like a religious zealot and convert everyone. The fluidity of this band and its ability to test new waters is reminiscent of David Bowie, another musician I hold in high esteem.
Coming off the back of seeing Arcade Fire at Best Kept Secret 2017, when the announcement came for their Everything Now roundhouse tour, I was bursting with excitement to see the gig and snagged tickets a whopping seven months ahead of it.
The opener, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, seemed like an odd choice but upon their introduction to the stage, I began to beam and bop along to the beat of the six piece New Orleans jazz pumping into the arena. With the usual riffing off one another that comes with jazz, the master cap jumped from the piano to the sax onto the upright bass, to the trumpet, trombone and drums. My favourite of the troupe quickly became the jovial trombone player. His deep voice, playful whop whop whopping of his trombone with a plunger, alongside sliding and dancing along on the stage was just the trick to win me and likely the rest of the crowd. This band did a great job of amping up the audience ahead of the spectacle Arcade Fire were sure to put on.
Waiting alongside the ever growing crowd, we were met with fake ads for electric blue, the neon bible, and USB fidget spinners. A cosmic-faced cowboy was having us chant "Everything Now" while the roadies were busy putting up wrestling ropes around the circumference of the stage. Finally the lights dimmed and on came the song A Fifth of Beethoven (by Walter Murphy) while the members of Arcade Fire began making their way to the stage. Régine, wearing a sequined hoodie and shadow boxing stole the entrance as the crowd pushed to get closer.
The center of the stage began to revolve two drum kits and a piano while each band member took their initial spot on stage, quickly jumping into the single Everything Now. Having fun and moving about the stage, Win Butler quickly discarded his Everything Now bomber jacket only to be wearing an Everything Now shirt underneath.
Everything Now transitions into Rebellion and had us shaking our bums and singing along. This song never gets old; just feels like a longtime friend has come for a visit. A surprising amount of back catalogue songs were played, Here Comes the Night Time and No Cars Go before they moved swiftly into the current album for Electric Blue and Put Your Money on Me and then swiftly back to classics like Neon Bible, Suburbs, and more. The energy on stage, as well as the excellent light show and video boards kept the crowd on pace. Most of the audience was belting along with their favourite tracks and all in all the Brummie audience behaved themselves with no beers thrown or overly rowdy behaviour.
Not one to like goodbyes, I became blue when the eventual conclusion of the night came and the encore hit the stage, with the reappearance of Preservation Hall Jazz Band. I think the band felt similarly since they made a bit of a parade around the arena and had the crowd chasing them to the back stage.
