(Photo taken from Night 1 – find more here)
When I told people I was going all three nights of Arcade Fire’s weekend takeover of Barclays Center, a lot of people were confused as to why. The main concern was why would you see the same show three times in a row? It’s a perfectly fair question, but that’s only if you assume that the setlist would stay the same. Even if it did, the performance was so good that I wouldn’t have minded all that much.
The set Friday night was great, but naturally, there were a few songs I would have loved to hear. How did they return on Saturday? They added in “Month Of May”, “Crown Of Love”, “Intervention.” Marky Ramone was the surprise guest, coming out to play drums with Arcade Fire as they chugged through “I Don’t Wanna Go Down To The Basement” and “I Wanna Be Sedated.” Even little details such as during night two’s performance of “The Suburbs” where Win reminisced about playing at The Knitting Factory with The Unicorns many, many, years ago.
I didn’t expect it, but Sunday night may have been the best show of entire 3-night run. Not only because Television opened in addition to The Unicorns and Dan Deacon, but because it featured the most enthusiastic crowd yet. Win and company agreed, saying as much, but also visibly being moved by the crowds feverish nature, feeding off of it.
They added in “Flashbulb Eyes”, “Rococo” (with a bit of “Helter Sketer” teased), and brought back “No Cars Go.” The fake bobble-heads “played” “All My Friends” before the band brought out special guest David Byrne who covered Suicide’s “Dream Baby Dream.” After that the band kicked into “Here Comes The Night Time” and sent a bobble-head wearing David Byrne to crowd-surf over the packed pit of fans, who carried him all the way to the back.
Even the set mainstays such as “”Reflektor”, “Power Out,” “Rebellion (Lies),” “Hati, “”Afterlife,” and of course “Wake Up never got tiring, simply because Arcade Fire are good enough to give them new interpretations night in and night out.
It my first time ever going to every show of a multi-night residency, but it was totally worth it in every way. Arcade Fire are now an arena band, and you know what? It works.
See photos and a review of night 1 right here. Here are some iPhone shots from night 2 + 3:
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