Bit of an odd one, this. Suburban War and the cranked-up Month of May apart, I wasn't sold on the new material; the Suburbs in particular was tepid and uninspiring at best. The crowd were really subdued until the big hits came out and the sound was pretty flat throughout. Laika was a bit half-arsed, and the nifty projections (State Trooper Win!) were underutilised. And of all the Neon Bible songs to play, they chose fucking Intervention.
BUT. The lighting was cool, and interestingly done. Power Out/Rebellion was typically awesome, as was old favourite Haiti. Win seemed on good form, even if the rest of the band seemed tired. And Tunnels/Wake Up really was my live musical highlight of the year- think I may have done my vocal chords some permanent damage.
It was almost like there were two completely different bands playing- the better-than-average, but nonetheless MOR indie plodders on the one hand, and THE MOTHERFUCKING ARCADE FIRE of the Funeral-era on the other. The fact remains that without the encore, that performance would have struggled to make my Top 20 this year, and for the band I've regarded as the high watermark of live music ever since I started going to gigs- in fact, the band that ignited my fanatical love of gigs in the first place- that's just not good enough.
(Photo: Oliver Peel (Flickr))
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