Live Review

Arcade Fire – O2, London

• 3rd Dec 2010

As the snow powdered itself down outside The O2, fans descended into Greenwich in force to see the live return of Arcade Fire to London. Playing their first ever UK arena date, they took the London venue by storm.

With support being provided by Devendra Bandhart, fans walked into the sound of trippy rock and roll to get them into a vibe for later. Their songs, content and catchy, warmed up the cold souls still clutching to their coats.

As they left, tech’s swarmed the stage, revealing a backdrop of a highway, with a billboard projecting graphics taking centre place. The band quickly followed, taking set at nine o clock and playing a 100 minute set. Launching into opener ‘Ready To Start’ absorbing the audience with its pulsing guitar. From this came a brief introduction and praise of the recent student demos, followed by the strings detailed the start of the atmospheric intro to ‘Keep The Car Running.’ As front man Win Butler’s chants of “When It’s Coming, When it’s coming,” echoed round the venue.

A haunting rendition of ‘Neighbourhood #2 (Laika)’ was followed by ‘No Cars Go,’ as the audience shouted every word back. Each member looked their own on stage, interfacing with each other perfectly, adding their own special element to the layers of sound. Next came Regine’s turn, adding her charismatic charm to ‘Haiti’ and ‘Sprawl II’.

The set contained every favourite the crowd could have wished for, slowly building to a finale as ‘Rebellion (Lies)’ blended beautifully into ‘Month Of May’. Leaving the stage to ‘Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels)’. The crowd sang for more, as they returned to finish the set with immaculate versions of the highly acclaimed ‘We Used To Wait’ and ‘Wake Up,’ as a sea of hands waved and fists pumped to the end.

On the way out, faint echo’s of fans singing could be heard as they descended on their journeys back into the snowy mayhem. Back into the world they’d forgotten for an evening.
Arcade Fire are set to tour the UK throughout December.

10/10