The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

Originally posted by phillidan:
the front of the floor felt like the club, and the energy was incredible

Exactly what I was thinking. Win said (to paraphrase) "OK, I'm going to apologize to all the security people now, but everyone come on down to the front. These people need to fucking dance!"

My only criticism was that it seemed to take a few songs for the sound guys to get everything just right (though this seems to happen at almost every show). Black Mirror sounded pretty muddy.

Originally posted by eros:
My only criticism was that it seemed to take a few songs for the sound guys to get everything just right (though this seems to happen at almost every show). Black Mirror sounded pretty muddy.

Gotta agree there. The sound certainly wasn't flawless at the beginning, levels were way off, and there were several feedback incidents throughout the set. It was sounding pretty good by the end though.

Great, great show though! Lots of great audience energy up front. I was really glad I had my row D seat. It really made a difference. Best DAR show ever (at least for me).

I'm sad I missed the National, but I've seen them before and will see them again (soon even). DAR shows always start earlier than I'd like. I didn't leave work until 7pm. By the time, I got to DAR it was ~8:15. I spent the next half hour or so unsuccessfully trying to sell my extra ticket and missed the whole National set. :(

Damn it! I wish I'd looked at this thread sooner. I was thinking about going down and looking for an extra but thought my chances were slim. Hope you were able to get rid of yours.

Originally posted by sweetcell:

FYI, Orch row B seat 121 will most probably remain empty tonight. just sayin'.

that was the most spiritual thing ive ever experienced. and it was only the second time in my life where something surpassed my expectations.

Originally posted by DarthEd:
Gotta agree there. The sound certainly wasn't flawless at the beginning, levels were way off, and there were several feedback incidents throughout the set. It was sounding pretty good by the end though.

Great, great show though! Lots of great audience energy up front. I was really glad I had my row D seat. It really made a difference. Best DAR show ever (at least for me).

I'm sad I missed the National, but I've seen them before and will see them again (soon even). DAR shows always start earlier than I'd like. I didn't leave work until 7pm. By the time, I got to DAR it was ~8:15. I spent the next half hour or so unsuccessfully trying to sell my extra ticket and missed the whole National set. :(

Ed, were you and a lady friend standing behind the drunk dude reclining on the seat?

What a brilliant show. I saw them once in a large venue in the UK and this far surpassed that show (not that the other show was bad by any means). The lights/video really added a lot to the experience.

no cars go….live…is…..amazing.

Looking at the setlist, I have to say that the run from "Windowstill" to "Keep the Car Running" was damn near flawless. "The Well and the Lighthouse" is fantastic, "Ocean of Noise" is just unreal. I know I'm in the minority, but I actually prefer Neon Bible to Funeral. It has finally sunk in after seeing them live. Not that Funeral isn't fantastic. But agreed, this band IS something special.

this show fits easily into the top 3 shows i've ever seen. i have never, ever seen a seated venue that into a rock show. i was floored at how amazing they worked a room like that. there was a ton of stuff going on but never once was it distracting. this was one of the few shows that i consider an 'experience' rather than a concert. amazing.

Just chiming in in agreement with the kick-ass-ness of that show. I somehow scored Orch B, 109 after buying seats side stage. I was really impressed by The National and will try to make it their 9:30 show next month. The new album is killer.

Originally posted by bigyellow100:
that was the most spiritual thing ive ever experienced. and it was only the second time in my life where something surpassed my expectations.

Exactly. And I agree with all other posters about how unbelievably awesome this was. I have friends who couldn't get tickets and I feel bad…I mean I really feel bad for them that they missed this.

This show restored my faith in music. Arcade Fire is the real deal. And I was oh so skeptical/cynical of all the hype for the past few years that I robbed myself of seeing them sooner.

I'm so glad to come back here and see so many people who felt the same way.

And yes, I agree with whomever said No Cars Go was the song of the night. I am still reeling from that. Just Wow.

Looks like we got lucky, 'cause they didn't play Wake Up at the Philly show! muwahaha!

Originally posted by allmy$to930:
Ed, were you and a lady friend standing behind the drunk dude reclining on the seat?

No, I was there solo (although there were ladies on either side of me, they were with other guys) and my seat was closer to the inner aisle than where the drunk dude ended up. He started over by me though, then moved up a row, and then eventually ended up more in the middle. What a waste of a good seat! He could have gone outside and got hammered if that's all he wanted to do.

"No Cars Go" was excellent, but I was more impressed by "Windowsill." The album version never made much of an impression on me, but their live rendition turned that around for me. They really were amazing. I'm still on a concert-going high two days later.

Originally posted by eros:

Originally posted by phillidan:
the front of the floor felt like the club, and the energy was incredible

Exactly what I was thinking. Win said (to paraphrase) "OK, I'm going to apologize to all the security people now, but everyone come on down to the front. These people need to fucking dance!"

My only criticism was that it seemed to take a few songs for the sound guys to get everything just right (though this seems to happen at almost every show). Black Mirror sounded pretty muddy.

I'm really beginning to regret keeping my seat for the whole show. I was at the front of Section J, which is just right of center in the back, right above the box seats. When everyone starting pouring down onto the floor, I gave some serious thought to heading down there, but figured that I wouldn't be able to make much headway towards the stage and would end up with a much worse view than what I had. It sounds like I would have had a better time had I hit the floor.

The show was indeed pretty amazing, though. Neon Bible took a while to grow on me, but I came to absolutely love quite a few tracks over the past couple weeks, and hearing them live was mindblowing. The Funeral songs were really good (especially "Neighborhood #1"), but a few of the Neon Bible songs were just spectacular. "Intervention" may be my favorite song on the album, so I was pretty ecstatic when they launched into it during the encore. And yes, "No Cars Go" was crazy good, as was "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations" (another Neon Bible favorite of mine).

I noticed the sound issues at the beginning as well. I'm just glad they got them mostly cleared up before "No Cars Go". :)

And I wish I hadn't missed The National. I'd heard good things about them and was rather looking forward to their set, and from all accounts it seems they were rather awesome. :(

Originally posted by earth intruder aka j. marshmallow:
Looks like we got lucky, 'cause they didn't play Wake Up at the Philly show! muwahaha!

Before they played it they had a little group meeting on stage and you could see one of them say "Should we play Wake Up?" I thought it was just them kind of pretending they weren't planning on playing it, but maybe it's not a regular part of the set?

The encore was supposed to be "(Antichrist Television Blues)" and then "Intervention". But instead they changed it to "Intervention" and then "Wake Up". That was definitely not planned out, and we were indeed very lucky!

I was surprised that they didn't play Antichrist, but Wake Up was a nice alternative.

Loved the show. It's a whole different dynamic being in a theatre like that, but the only thing that was a bummer was not being able to have a drink while watching. Was very glad that everyone in my section stood the whole show, and I had an aisle seat so had plenty of room to do my thing.

It was religious, I swear. Arcade Fire fans are CRAZY, and they're just proof that this May is PHENOMENAL when it comes to damn good concerts. I saw Bjork twice, and again tomorrow night (and again and again), and I'm seeing the Arcade Fire again tonight in NYC.

I'm just…shocked at how great that show was. I only wish that Regine would've done "In the Backseat"! I've been waiting to hear it live again since 2005!! Whatever, I still left the show one happy black man!

Side note: WOW to the Neon Bible songs live! "Intervention" is nothing short of amazing. "Windowsill" makes me tear up…and I wish he'd have pulled out "My Body is a Cage".

ix: are you the black guy in left Orchestra BB or CC at the United Palace show, wearing a shirt that says "Why would you free Michael Jackson?"

If that was you, you are one crazy dude!

YES!!! That was me! ("Why Free Michael Jackson?" shirt…dancing my ass off, etc.)

I was in Orchestra BB at United Palace and Orchestra DD at Radio City!!!

Are you going to the Apollo show tomorrow/Arcade Fire tonight?

This show now tops my list of best shows I've been to (not that it has much competition). It was definitely the best audience I've ever seen in DC; everyone was so into it. I was VERY happy with my seat in box 13, especially since I'm too short to see well when everyone's standing on the floor. (I feel horrible for people in the obstructed view seats; there were definitely some things on the stage that got in the way.) The entire thing was just unbelievable. After seeing the NC setlist, I was really nervous they wouldn't play Wake Up; I'm so glad they did. And I hope Win was serious when he said they'll be back soon!

The only thing that could have made it better is meeting the band; I missed Win when he was signing things out by the bus. Oh well.

(There's a recording of the show on dimeadozen. It's pretty good, too.)