Arcade Fire - St John's - London 31/01/07
- Posted on February 12, 2007 4:51 PM
- 0 comments
When I got hold of this ticket, I knew life would not be simple for a while:
I recently escaped unharmed a couple of murder attempts; one of my relative that makes real voodoo dolls spotted a couple of my friends hanging in his shop; I had to hire a food taster to make sure my healthy salads were polonium free; Even Ian Curtis from Joy Division appeared in my dreams to tell me he made a deal with some sorts of fallen angel : If I gave him my ticket, he will come back from the dead for a while and perform live with his New order mates in my living room. But I refused. Why??? Because on the 31st of January, at St John's Church, London,UK, was the best gig I ever attended.
8.30pm. Lights fades. Some movement in the middle of the church. I stand on my front row seat and turn around, only to see few moving shadows that start to perform The Clash 'Guns of Brixton' acoustically. Everybody sang: the band, a couple of daring guests, and even Joe Strummer would have been proud of those might Quebecois. The song ends, I move toward the middle of the stage, still at the very front.
On stage, they started their set with a few new songs from their new album, 'the neon bible' (a reference the Ignatius Reilly creator?).
I previously listened to 'Black Mirror' on their website, and thought it was quite a good song, but I must admit I have a tendency to like rough studio sound (think Steve Albini) instead of more produced textures.
After listening to that song, the mixture of Markus Dravs (Bjork, Brian Eno) and Scott Colburn (Animal Collective, Sun City Girls) produces a sound richer than the funeral, without loosing the attack of the band. This preview of songs of 'the neon bible' was quite welcomes, because after listening to the album in loop for the last couple of weeks, I was literally craving from some new material. And I was before all wishing the tunes will be as good as the Funeral. And overall, they were: Flying between conventional and post-rocky structures, the songs always bring elements of surprise where the end has little to do with the beginning.
The Band were about 12 on stage, and luckily , the stage was wide enough to allow them to move feely. And I can tell you they DO move around, grabbing any piece of kit they find on their way, may it be drums, loudspeaker, or a head that wears a motorcycle helmet. The general description for the show is a troop semi-lunatic entertainers taking over a church while slamming waves of fantastic music (including a few walls of sound) in every possible directions.
Well, you can have a preview of how it was like there http://hq.seatwaveblogs.com/200702/arcade_fire_st_johns_church_lo.php
and for the future, I advice you go and see them at the Brixton academy in march, or in Glastonbury this summer.
Bye for now,
Ben
The set was:
'The Guns Of Brixton'
'Keep The Car Running'
'Black Mirror'
'No Cars Go'
'Black Wave/Bad Vibrations'
'Windowsill'
'The Well And The Lighthouse'
'Ocean Of Noise'
'Rebellion (Lies)'
'Intervention'
'(Antichrist Television Blues)'
'My Body Is A Cage'
'Neighborhood # 1 (Tunnels)'
Tags
Arcade Fire, Music, Neon Bible, Post Rock
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