Mp3s: Arcade Fire in Boston
Posted on May 29, 2007 at 6:07 am | 1 Comment
Of the many memorable moments from the Arcade Fire‘s show here in Boston a few weeks back, there’s one that’s really stayed with me: At the end of the main set, as the band finished up “Rebellion (Lies)” and left the Orpheum stage, a melody rose above the massive applause. At first I thought it must be a pre-encore taped track, until I realized that it was coming from all around me. The entire crowd was recreating the vocal line from the long-faded second half of the song, and it was just beautiful. Our own attempt to give the band back a little bit of what they’d given us.
As I wrote back in late 2004, the Arcade Fire were an incredible live band right out of the gate. No matter what you think of their latest heavily-hyped album (me, I think it’s very good, but didn’t strike me quite as much as their first), you can’t deny their ability to put on a show, to not just play but to entertain, and without pretension. Everyone up on that stage seems to throw all they’ve got into the performance, even when the air feels ready to boil. Yeah, it was incredibly hot in the sold-out crowd that night, and if the spotlights threatened to cook all ten band members, they only showed it through pouring sweat. When Richard chased a drum-carrying Will down my aisle with drumsticks during “Neighborhood #2 (Laika)“, maybe it was to escape those stage lights.
My personal high point?: “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)“. It sounded better than ever. And my only complaints (aside from the sauna)?: No “Wake Up“, and no opening appearance from The National, who would open up elsewhere on the following day. I will say that I was glad to discover Wild Light, who played our show.
I’ll resist further rhapsodizing about the night, and just get to the live tracks. For a spot-on review of their Toronto show that expresses much of what I’d say about this Boston stop, hit up Chromewaves. And for the rest of my photos from the fifth row, check out my Flickr set.
Live at the Orpheum
in Boston, Massachusetts
on Thursday, May 10th, 2007
01. Intro / Black Mirror
02. No Cars Go
03. Haiti
04. Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
05. In The Backseat
06. My Body Is A Cage
07. Windowsill
08. The Well & The Lighthouse
09. Ocean Of Noise
10. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
11. Antichrist Television Blues
12. Keep The Car Running
13. banter
14. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
15. Rebellion (Lies)
encore 1…
16. wicked banter
17. Intervention
18. encore applause
encore 2…
19. Neon Bible
Some Arcade Fire link action…
Their official site, Wikipedia entry, MySpace page, the band’s Merge Records page, and the fantastic Us Kids Know site (here’s the thread on the UKK forums that discusses the Boston show). Mp3s: NPR broadcasted the Arcade Fire’s appearance at New York’s Judson Memorial Church on Feb. 17th, and you can download the entire set here. Video: AF would probably be a finalist in the “most-YouTubed live clips” contest, so do a search over there for the payload. Official videos from “Neon Bible”? Not so much. Kinda surprising that we haven’t seen any vids by now, actually. But if you haven’t yet, make sure you take a look at La Blogothèque’s Take-Away Show clip of the band performing “Neon Bible” in an elevator and “Wake Up” in the middle of an enraptured Parisian crowd. The Boston Herald, Boston Globe, and the Phoenix all weighed in on the show, as did an AF fan named Jeff over on his “My Fox” site. Listen to all ‘Nac-hosted tracks on the Hype Machine.
the post’s post-script… If anyone has an issue with these Mp3s being made available, just let me know (my contact info in the ‘nac faq). Live sets recorded with a Sony ECM-719 mic and a Sony MZ-RH10 minidisc, converted to .wav and then edited to 192kbps Mp3s. Files are made available for a limited time, and are not reposted once removed.
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May 9th, 2019 @ 7:12 pm
Big thanks for sharing this! We were there that night. Unforgettable. We also saw both of their shows at TT the Bears. Wish there was recording and photos of that.