ARCADE FIRE (Manchester MEN Arena, 27/10/07; Cardiff International Arena, 30/10/07)

I’ve written so many words about the Arcade Fire over the last couple of years that it seems slightly redundant to wax lyrical about their brilliance again. But AF’s Manchester show deserves a mention, if only for its outstanding quality. I’d fretted about the venue beforehand; the aircraft hanger masquerading as a music arena known as the MEN. It’s the biggest indoor site the band have ever played, as far away from the intimacy of the St. John’s gigs as you could possibly get and I couldn’t help but fear that even their inimitable energy would falter in the sheer vastness of the place. But yet again, they defied expectations by putting on a performance that commanded the attention of the whole of that oversized shed; a performance that wasn’t short of a few treats for us longstanding obsessives either. If the swirling minor chord arpeggios of the exceedingly rarely-played I’m Sleeping In A Submarine wasn’t enough of a surprise, then to follow up with the sublime, achingly beautiful In The Backseat was actually mind-blowing.

An appearance from Windowsill with a beautifully nuanced new arrangement was another unexpected highlight, but Ocean Of Noise was a step too far, resulting in the set sagging under the weight of too many subdued songs. A blinding Tunnels thankfully readdressed the balanced before the band unveiled the final shock of the night- a never-played-before cover of the Smiths “Still Ill,” which went down rather well with the Mancunian crowd. From then on, it was par for the course for the band, although that’s certainly not to be scoffed at. The perpetually brilliant double-whammy of Power Out and Rebellion wrapped up the main body of the show, and a mind-blowingly euphoric Wake Up, complete with 14,000 backing singers, was a perfectly unforgettable end to one of the better AF show’s I’ve seen.



Then off to Cardiff to a venue less than half the size of MEN; alas, the increased intimacy you’d think would result from the smaller audience didn’t manifest itself as much as I’d hoped. Some of the songs also lacked the vibrancy of the Saturday show (Power Out->Rebellion especially), although the setlist was the most interesting I’ve seen in a long while, starting for the first time ever with Ocean of Noise segueing into Tunnels (an intriguing, if not entirely successful experiment.) Mightily impressed with the audience though; energetic without being violent, it meant that despite the inferior showing by the band, it was actually more fun than Manchester. Cover of the night was an inspired take on the Violent Femme’s Kiss Off, delivered with brooding pipe organ by Win.

(Photos courtesy of: Greenbrightly (Flickr) and Moon (UKK))