Lollapalooza ’10: Arcade Fire

img 12555 Lollapalooza ’10: Arcade Fire – 8/8/10

Considering David Bowie wasn’t walking through that door, there’s no better way to cap off a fantastic festival experience than with Arcade Fire. As I waited in line to get into the photo pit, the largest one of the weekend behind Lady Gaga, I still couldn’t believe this was about to be my first Arcade Fire experience. I’ve tried to catch them three different times over the past few years, including a 300 person engagement in 2005, only to fail each time. I feel as if seeing Arcade Fire is a rite of passage or a pilgrimage every music fan should make and I was finally getting my chance.

[MP3] Arcade Fire – Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) (Thunderlust Remix)

The Suburbs is a wonderful album that I expected to hear a lot of Sunday evening, but was naturally curious as to how many older tunes they’d work in. Win Butler and crew know something about balance as they played a 17-song set complete with lots of new tracks and even more older tunes, firing their gargantuan crowd up by playing the majority of Funeral. I thought it was rather telling they only played three songs from Neon Bible (“Keep The Car Running”, “No Cars Go” and “Intervention”) or maybe I’m reading into it too much.

All analysis aside, my first Arcade Fire experience was beyond epic. The depth and energy of their music is just as contagious on a large stage as it was in small venues before they started topping Billboard charts and connecting with a larger audience. Sure, you might not be close enough for Win Butler to soak you with his spit when he sings or sweat when he head-bangs, but a sound as big as Arcade Fire’s thrives on huge speakers. They’re all extremely energetic, have a hard time standing still, and interchange instruments so frequently it’s near impossible to define specific roles.

If someone had asked me to assemble a setlist of favorite Arcade Fire songs before their show, there would’ve been no way to top the songs they chose. I’ve been to few concerts where the setlist is just perfect, your ears completely satisfied and your mood improved by the music played. Well, Arcade Fire did it – playing “Neighborhoods 1-3″, “Crown of Love”, “Rebellion (Lies)”, “We Used To Wait”, “Ready to Start”, “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”, “Rococo”, and loads more. Aside from a stellar setlist playing every song I wanted to hear, they encored with a grandoise rendition of “Wake Up” that had the support of a 50,000 member backing chorus. There really wasn’t a better way to close out Lollapalooza and leave Chicago buzzing than an epic set from Arcade Fire.