Powerful, but misplaced in suburbia.

(c) Rasmus B.S. Hansen - terranaut.dk

Apparently it's a theme for Arcade Fire to place the stops on their tour for now year-old The Suburbs in - well, the suburbs, obviously. Despite the glaring inconvenience in having to mosey 7000 people to the suburbs, it also meant that a band very complex and detailed in sound were forced to play in a velodrome. Not only is the mood in sports-arenas-turned-concert-venues often dull as grass, but the sound really suffered as well, which was a shame. The vocals were almost consistently too low in the mix, as were the guitars, that much too often drowned in drum and bass, almost like were it a Foals-gig.


It wasn't Arcade Fire's fault, however, that I went from the concert with somewhat of a good-but-not-great sentiment. The band is ridiculously well playing, and it's unnoticeable that they have been touring for a long time. Zest, energy and high musicality reigns supreme across the eight-piece outfit, and cute, beefy-armed Régine Chassagne is a pleasure to watch, both when she or-faces on the drums and when she dances like a joyous little girl front stage. Compared to when I last saw them in 2007, the band has become much better at navigating through the changing-of-instruments intermezzi that occur so often. This time around, it made the concert seem much less discontinuous.


The crowd was really pathetic, which resulted in obvious highlights such as 'Ready To Start' (which, in spite of the obviousness, was miscast as the opening tune) and 'Keep The Car Running' falling hard on the ground in the opening movements of the concert. About a third of the way through, the band bundled some of the darker tunes, 'Rococo', 'Intervention' and the beautiful 'My Body Is A Cage'. It worked pretty well, but also contributed in benumbing the crowd even more, so much that the powerfully and fiercely delivered 'Month of May' ended up as a parody, with an intense band opposing a passive audience.


Things didn't really take off until the impressive finish with 'Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)', 'We Used to Wait' and the tried and tested, but nevertheless excellent merge of 'Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)' and 'Rebellion (Lies)'. Coupled with 'Wake Up' and 'Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)' as the encore, one could be forgiven for thinking that Arcade Fire should perhaps have spread their trumps more evenly, but considering how dull the crowd was, it would have been a waste of good material.


All in all, Arcade Fire played a spotless concert through and through, and only the surrounding elements kept the concert from being one of the true greats.