Arcade Fire at the Key Arena on Wednesday, September 29th
Walking through Seattle Center we ran into a group of kids from the Tri-Cities who like us made the trip to Seattle to see the indie rock superheroes Arcade Fire. Though I must say, these kids made me a bit jealous for tonight was their 25th time seeing the Arcade Fire! One of the kids said, “they get better every time!” It was cool to see other people who love, love, love this band as we do.
Tonight was the first time in almost three years where I knew every single song at a concert. I sang along to every chorus, danced, put my hands in the air and clapped straight for an entire song… which made my arms a bit tingly; don’t think I have ever done that.
The Arcade Fire stage set up was very fitting, it appeared as you were looking up at a freeway, with lights, and a billboard. The billboard was more like a movie screen that played clips and also played live footage that looked like it was shot on vintage film. It wasn’t overriding but still gorgeous. The band was glowing with thier superior music talent and the entire set sounded flawless. They have grown up a bit.
Win said a few things throughout the night but genuinely could not stop saying thank you. The first thing he said was “thank you very much for coming, feel free to stand up if you legs are not too tired.” He mentioned how they don’t take this for granted, to see this many people see their band is humbling. He also brought up how they have been playing these smaller clubs and they said fuck it and played the Key Arena so everyone could come; loved it! My favorite Win comment of the night was “for being the birth place of grunge you guys are pretty fucking polite.”
The set list for the evening went as:
“Ready to Start”
“Month of May”
“Keep the Car Running”
“Neighborhood # 2 (Laika) “
“No Cars Go”
“Haiti”
“Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Moutains)”
“Modern Man”
“Rococo”
“The Suburbs”
“Ocean of Noise”
“Neighborhood # 1 (Tunnels)”
“We Used to Wait”
“Neighborhood # 3 (Power Out)”
“Rebellion (Lies)”
Encore
“Intervention”
“Wake Up”
I loved that during “Oceans of Noise” Calexico came out and played the trumpet piece. In addition, how the band had ribbons on all of their tambourines! Regine even did a little ribbon dance during “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains).” The coolest video part of the evening was during “The Suburbs” they had the video on the backdrop, on the billboard, and then the lights went down and the video shrunk to fit on the piano that Win was playing on stage. Beautiful effect! I can’t get over how talented the entire band is; because everyone plays different instruments and moves around on stage. In between every song the lights went down and there was a 30 second shuffle on stage from the band. They would tune instruments and switch stage sides, it was really cool to see that what you heard musically was played on stage. The entire night I was in complete bliss, dancing, clapping, putting my hands in the air, and just singing the lyrics at the top of my lungs.
Last but not least Win made a point to tell us thank you because a dollar of every ticket we bought is donated to Partners In Health. Click here to learn more about Partners in Health.
Arcade Fire,
It was blissfully sophisticated and brilliant. Until We Meet Again…
Yours Truly,
Andrea Williams
Photos courtesy of Matt Auclair.
