I am blessed to be surrounded by very creative people that point me in the direction of greatness. Back in 2004 my wife told me to listen to this station out of Seattle called KEXP while I worked in my office in Idaho. KEXP was in New York City to cover the CMJ Music Marathon and were doing a series of small, live concerts from a museum in Brooklyn. I found their website and began to listen to their live stream of the shows. In that same morning I discovered two of my favorite artists that to this day are still in heavy rotation on my ipod. The first was Sufjan Stevens who’s music is my 20′s in a lot of ways. The second band I heard was The Arcade Fire. I remember calling my wife and saying, “this is amazing! I cant believe I’ve never heard of these guys before!” Since then I have been a committed Arcade Fire fan. Later that year my wife and I drove to Seattle to see them perform live; that show has remained one of the best experiences I’ve ever had at a concert. For their encore they came out on stage with acoustic instruments and played a while then proceeded to walk down through the packed audience, out into the Foyer of the Paramount, all the while playing and singing as loud as possible. Once they reached the Foyer they set up on the stairs and played for 15 minutes with the audience singing along.
That’s what I love about Arcade Fire; they are true entertainers and are passionate about providing the best sound and concert experience possible. Today they recorded an interview with NPR about their latest album and even played a couple of tracks from it. From listening to the two songs I can say that it is distinctly Arcade Fire while also distinctly not something you would find on either their first LP, “Funeral,” or their second, “Neon Bible.” I am excited to see them on the road in the fall and will be in line in August to purchase “The Suburbs.”
