For five days last week the Arcade Fire played to sold out, yet intimate audiences in New York City’s Judson Memorial Church. Though I didn’t go, I certainly have been scouring the web and listening to the various songs they played from their new album, Neon Bible.
A few resources to catch up on the action:
Listen to a stream of Saturday night’s show as webcast by NPR’s All Songs Considered …or download the full show. You can also listen to Bob Boilen’s interview with the band, fan interviews before the show and a watch a slide show gallery with some great photos.
Stereogum’s review
The Onion AV Club blog review
Download a quality audience recording of Friday’s show
It seems the highlight for many people was the acoustic (kinda) performance of “Wake Up” that was performed in the crowd.
[youtube]Kbjf7OcpCio[/youtube]
After listening to a majority of the Friday and Saturday night’s shows, I have to say this band is on the cusp of peaking. These gigs at the church could very well be the last intimate experiences audiences will get with this band for some time. But the music here is more solid and revelatory than ever. Hearing the new songs in the live context mixed with the old, made me love the new album even more.
What once was a scrappy energetic performing band falling short in imitating the greatness of their album, is now a band who accentuates and even surpasses that greatness.
Aryn saw them at the genesis of their career right around the time the first LP came out in 2004. I cannot wait to try to see what they bring when they hit D.C. in a few months.