Live Review

Arcade Fire – Hyde Park, London

• 4th Jul 2011

On Thursday, Arcade Fire headlined their biggest UK show ever at Hyde Park, playing to 60,000 people. That’s about 59,200 people more than when I saw the indie-rock giants for the first time at the ULU in 2005.

Back then we were completely blown away by the band’s performance. They charged through their set, shouting, running around and banging on all sorts of instruments (and each other), drawing the audience into their crazy world. It was mayhem. And it was euphoric. Afterwards we all knew we’d seen something pretty special and we agreed that, despite not knowing the band, it had been one of the best gigs we’d ever seen. Certainly during that year I only saw one show that could match theirs in intensity, and that was U2 during their Vertigo Tour playing at Croke Park – using what was a relatively obscure song at the time called “Wake Up” as intro to their set.

You could say that was more or less the time the world started taking notice of this inspiring new band. So it came as no surprise that Arcade Fire eventually progressed to arena shows from the theatres and churches they started out in. When I saw the line up for the Hyde Park gig, with Beirut and Mumford & Sons on support, I thought it would be a great opportunity to see whether the same magic could be experienced on such a big scale.

Following a captivating set by Beirut, and a typically energetic one by Mumford & Sons, the Montreal-based band kicked off their hit-laden set with scenes from the Spike Jonze-directed short film, ([link]) “Scenes From the Suburbs”, launching straight into the anthemic “Ready to Start”.

The look on frontman Win Butler’s face when they came on stage, and throughout the whole set, was one of genuine awe. “I can’t tell you how happy we are to be here,” he declared with childlike enthusiasm, before introducing “Wake Up” saying “…this a song we normally do later in the set but I want to fucking do it now.” And telling the sun-drenched crowd afterwards: “We just wanted to do that song while we could still see you people.”

The band then launched into a powerful version of one of their regular set openers, “No Cars Go”.

I missed a couple of songs after that, as I had to leave the photo pit via the backstage area. But then, unbelievably, I struggled to find a spot in the crowd were people were actually paying attention to the band. I settled on a spot to the left of the stage, where my initial disbelief eventually turned into murderous frustration (totally baffling, really, considering I’d already had two pear ciders). On stage the band were playing their hearts out, but on the field a lot of people, teenagers mainly, weren’t paying any attention at all – shouting inanities at each other, pushing in and out of the crowd with their gigantic handbags with the latest Tatler-ish magazine sticking out, taking seven billion photos of themselves and their friends coyly looking up at their cameras, and somewhere at the back throwing their pee into the audience. “Most ungracious!” as Carolyn Bourne would say. Or, to put it in a language these kids would understand: WTF!?

During this time the band played a new track “Speaking In Tongues”, which features on the repackaged version of “The Suburbs”. It was the second time they’ve played the song and, according to Butler, it “was the least scared we’ve been, doing a song we’ve only really played in rehearsal, to 60,000 people – so thank you so much”. I can’t really say what it was like, as I was trying really hard not to kill somebody. At this point I actually thought my transition to grumpy old woman was complete. But judging from all the dirty looks people around me were giving and getting, I realised it wasn’t just me. One guy was literally shouting different words to a different song and jumping on the poor guy in front of him. He eventually lost his temper, but (unfortunately) his girlfriend managed to restrain him.

Half-way through the set, the band kicked it into another gear, and when they played “The Suburbs” everything came together – and remained so for the rest of the set, reaching momentum with “Rebellion (Lies)”. Before they launched into “Month Of May”, Butler took the opportunity to slam the Park’s neighbours, saying “All the rich people who live around this Park… every year they try to buy up the rights so you can’t make a little noise.” And this comment may well have explained part of the problem. Because of noise restrictions, it seems, the sound set up was just not appropriate for drowning out the idiots who, as one Twitter-user politely put it, didn’t give a shit.

Butler’s criticism of the wealthy neighbours continued when he changed the lyrics of “Neighbourhood #2 (Laika)” to include “The neighbourhood is asking you to turn it down a bit.”

Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out) was the last song followed by an encore of Keep The Car Running, Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels), and Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) to wrap up with.

It really is refreshing to see a band enjoying themselves so much on stage. At one point Win thanked the crowd saying “This is so much better and so much more fun than we ever could’ve dreamed.” It’s difficult to think of many other bands that, after so many years, would still be in awe with everything they’ve achieved. It’s genuine, it’s rare, and it’s completely endearing.

They were as captivating as I remembered them but, at times, certain individuals managed to turn what could’ve been an awesome show into what my friend Kath would call “a tube journey set to music”. Whether it was a case of the sound not sufficiently drowning out the chatting, or (god forbid) that this is the future of all open air festival gigs, I’m not sure.

Fortunately, halfway through the concert, small groups of ‘them’ and ‘us’ seemed to have formed around me. And the group of people who were adamant to enjoy the gig, absolutely made me remember the magic that is Arcade Fire, and why they should be on everyone’s must-see list.

“We’ll see you in a couple years” Butler proclaimed as they left the stage. And, considering his earlier comments about Glastonbury, it may well be as one of the headlining acts for the 2013 festival – far away from the noise police.