Gig review: Arcade Fire @ MEN Arena, Manchester
Arcade Fire yet again proved they are amongst the very best bands in the world as they wowed Manchester’s MEN Arena last night.
The alternative Canadians’ energetic 90-minute performance was out of the very top drawer and they certainly deserve their standing as the indie rock band of the moment.
They sound superb live, as they do in the studio, and tracks like Rococo from most recent album The Suburbs transferred beautifully onto the stage while well known hits such as Wake Up are stadium/festival classics already.
Arcade Fire are not your regular rock outfit. For starters, there are eight of them, led by the husband and wife duo of Win Butler and Regine Chassagne. There are drums of all varieties, violins, accordions and more, all working together to produce a sound often imitated but rarely reproduced.
The 2011 Grammy winners (Album of the Year for The Suburbs) also have that priceless asset – stage presence, obviously a key component for any big touring band.
Bounding around the MEN stage for an hour and a half and dishing out a 17-song set certainly gave their fans value for money.
Speaking of money, £1 of each ticket also went to a Haitian charity which is close to the band’s heart – Chassagne’s parents emigrated from Haiti before she was born. Another nice touch from a band who manage to seamlessly combine edge with modesty.
The best received song of the night had to be Wake Up. The drum beat leading into the crowd chanting makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand tall and Butler made the most of it as he took his mic into the crowd.
One regret was that City With No Children was not played – an oversight to many as it is an excellent song and could have added to this excellent set list.
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But, as you would expect of a band of Arcade Fire’s renown, each and every song they did choose was welcomed to cheers and roars from the packed house of 11,000.
Mountains Beyond Mountains, Keep The Car Running, Speaking in Tongues and more – it was a varied set which did what all good live shows should do – leave the crowd wanting more.
Even a well received encore of Rebellion (Lies) and The Suburbs could not quench the insatiable thirst of the audience who were treated to a masterclass. Long may Arcade Fire keep returning to Manchester.
Watch Arcade Fire play 'Wake Up' live at MEN Arena, Manchester here:
Arcade Fire
Best gig since Springsteen in 1981 at Brighton Centre for me; and almost as good as that. Wow, I am showing my age! But that's the great thing about AC; they cross all boundaries because they are so darned good. I took my three sons, two of whom are not fans of anything much other than Hard Rock and Punk Pop respectively...but they all loved it.Can't wait for the next album and tour. BTW; they were even better at MEN than they were at O2 in December, and that's saying something.
Arcade Fire
I thought they where fantastic, I saw them when toured funeral, years ago. There was a song played before they started, sounded like electro with a kinda florence and the machine vocal, anyone got any ideads?
I saw them in Cardiff CIA the
I saw them in Cardiff CIA the Neon Bible tour and they were awesome. Was very dissapointed with MEN gig the sound was awful you coulod hardly hear him singing!!! Its the first time I have ever left a gig early
Arcade Fire MEN (2)
Previous comment not from Anonymous but from Dave Bentley, Oldham if anyone wants to parly about the gig. djbentley@fsmail.net
Arcade Fire MEN
Jack, if AF played every excellent song in their repertoire we'd be there all night. The real shame is we only get three songs off Neon Bible these days. I thought the best received song on the night was Intervention with Win Butler putting more passion into than ever. I hope someone videoed it because it was one of the best live renditions I've seen and heard. The encore was Month of May + Rebellion (Lies) + The Suburbs/Suburbs Continued. I think an important point to note is that AF experimented last night. Speaking in Tongues was only the third live performance that I know of and to the best of my knowledge they have never before wrapped up a set with The Suburbs rather than with an anthem. They know they can do this with a Manchester audience which is a testimony to our sophistication. And did you notice they were genuinely hesitant to leave the stage, even though they had lass then 20 hours to decamp to Edinburgh? The only down side for me was the sound quality which was very poor. Partly the MEN's acoustics but also down to a sound crew that isn't up to the job in my opinion. The worst example was Rebellion, which just became a cacophony of sound so that you couldn't even hear the piano riff. But even so 10/10 as ever and your review is good.
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