SOUNDS OF "THE SUBURBS"

“How are the people on the hill doing?” asked Win Butler, Arcade Fire’s lead vocalist, of the fans crammed onto the sprawling lawn behind the Merriweather Post Pavilion amphitheatre in Maryland. “That’s where I’d be," he announced proudly. Before launching into the encore, he shared a story from his suburban Houston childhood: as an usher at an outdoor venue in Texas (not unlike the 16,500-person space he was now headlining), he would turn a blind eye to eager fans from the cheap seats sneaking down to the stage.

Experiences like these colour the band’s third album, “The Suburbs”. Most of Arcade Fire is native to cosmopolitan Montreal—the adopted hometown of Win Butler and his bandmate and brother William—yet the new record sounds like it came straight out of the American rust belt: “Some cities make you lose your head/Endless suburbs stretched out thin and dead/And what was that line you said/Wishing you were anywhere but here/You watch the life you're living disappear.” Butler delivers these lines on “Wasted Hours”, a song that echoes the Midwestern malaise of The Replacements, who first proclaimed that “Anywhere’s Better Than Here”.

Even the stage was set up to evoke the claustrophobic sprawl of middle America: a lone streetlight was visible in the rear left of the backdrop, with an image of cracked pavement and a bridge overpass enveloping all eight members of the touring band. A giant billboard, which doubled as a video screen and lighting display, rose out of the rear centre of the stage, tying the suburban motif together.

I first saw the Arcade Fire six years ago in the Midwest. They were crammed into Minneapolis’s 400 Bar, a venue that holds fewer than its name implies. The young band still filled the stage with evocative props: Christmas lights, nativity-scene animals and snowmobile helmets, which also served as percussive instruments, worn and pounded on by two band members during the performance of “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels). This time around, playing the same anthemic song for thousands of new fans, the band had lost none of its enthusiasm—though they left the helmets at home.

Suburbs Indeed, many of the high-points at the Merriweather show came from "Funeral", the band’s standout debut album. "The Suburbs" is still too new to galvanise a stadium full of people, but the songs themselves don't seem designed to pack that kind of punch. The album is a beautifully orchestrated, sprawling wonder, but it does not translate well into the feverish live shows the band has become known for.

"We were trying to do something new with our sound with drum machines, but they always fucking die”, Butler cursed after cutting short a failed version of new track “Half Light II (No Celebration)” five songs into the concert. “So here's the hit ‘Neighborhood #2 (Laika)’ off our critically acclaimed first record ‘Funeral’”, he cracked, bringing the crowd roaring back to life.

~ CORBIN HIAR

Picture credit: NRK P3, jessica@flickr (both via Flickr)