Once upon a time I was a member of David Bowie's online community Bowienet. It was a fairly active little community of Bowie fans from around the world and, every so often, the big man himself would grace us with a post or two on the message boards. One such time was in late 2004 when he proclaimed the next greatest thing in music was a Canadian band called Arcade Fire.
After that quite a lot of the Bowie fans instantly went for their music and just seemed to adore it while I took a stand-offish view of not bothering to give them a try as I wasn't about to buy into the hype. Still, when someone I knew at the time had a spare ticket to one of their shows in London the following March I decided to go anyway.
Now in my opinion the ULU in London has the worst sound of any venue I've ever been to so I left the gig somewhat impressed by the visual performance but not overly fussed by the music. However, in the days that followed I just couldn't stop humming the songs and I ended up snapping up the album by the end of that week.
In the five years since then they have gone on to have a great deal of critical acclaim and, while not having the mainstream chart success with singles, they have had big sales for their albums - their second album 'Neon Bible' peaked at number 2 in the US & UK and their third and most recent album 'The Suburbs' topped the album charts in the US & UK.
Their live performance is something worth experiencing and it has been known in the past for their tickets to trade for anything up to £1,000 a ticket for a smaller venue gig. Their next tour of the UK is taking in big arenas, such is their popularity, and they have already sold out one night at the 25,000 capacity O2 Arena in London with the second night looking close to selling out too. If you want to see them these days you have to be hot out of the blocks (and if anyone reading this is in the LA area and either has a spare ticket for the 7th October Shrine gig or knows someone who has one give me a shout!)
Last weekend they headlined the Reading & Leeds Festival here in the UK. They played an outstanding and magical set that gave me goosebumps just watching it on tv. 'Wake Up', in particular, has always had that effect on me and the performance last weekend was just magical, especially with the sound of the audience singing along.
Sadly the great footage of it that was on youtube has been taken down so this week I have to put up footage of them performing recently in Madison Square Garden. However I have found a video on youtube that someone filmed from the audience. The sound isn't the greatest and the camerawork leaves a lot to be desired but it does give you the overwhelming sound of the audience all singing in unison and so is still worth watching.
I hope you all enjoy this weeks song and I recommend that, if you don't already, go buy their albums! And if you have Google Chrome then check out their site http://thewildernessdowntown.com/
Arcade Fire - Wake Up
Somethin' filled up
My heart with nothin',
Someone told me not to cry.
But now that I'm older,
My heart's colder,
And I can see that it's a lie.
Children wake up,
Hold your mistake up,
Before they turn the summer into dust.
If the children don't grow up,
Our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up.
We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms turnin' every good thing to
rust.
I guess we'll just have to adjust.
With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am goin' to be
When the reaper he reaches and touches my hand.
With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am goin’
With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am, go-go, where I am
You'd better look out below
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