Here, I was confined to a balcony seat, because the tickets sold out alarmingly fast and that was the best I could get, but it was okay anyway. Just less enjoyable, due to not being able to go crazy without the possibility of losing my footing and toppling down to presumably my death from up above. Also, the sound was a bit over-saturated (if you will), but Roy Wilkins is notorious for bad sound anyway so I wasn't very surprised at all. But yes, it was okay.
Calexico was the opener, and not knowing any of their music, I would say it was pretty good. Their style isn't exactly my main choice, but it was smooth, and nice to listen to. The horns sounded great, and I enjoyed watching them. When the Arcade Fire finally came on, they were greeted by the expected screaming. They opened with "Ready to Start" off the Suburbs (which, as I probably should have expected, they played lots of songs from. I haven't really been feeling this album though, and I still haven't gotten around to purchasing it, so I was unfamiliar with a lot of the stuff. Oh well...). Right after, Win yelled, "This is a song called 'No Cars Go,'" and we erupted. Then shortly after, they played "Haiti." It was a good start to the show, indeed. The band was super-energetic, as I've heard, and they really put a lot of feeling into it. Even if it's only for show, it gets the rest of us going too, and it's super fun, if not a little dangerous (my god, the way they launched those drumsticks into the crowd I'm surprised no one got speared). It was a lot of fun, Regine was even dancing so hard the skirt of her dress flew up and we saw her butt. And you, crazy Win, you get down from that piano.
So, as I was saying, they played a lot of Suburbs tunes, but they also played most of their older songs that I wanted to hear. Although there was no "My Body is a Cage," they did play "Intervention," my other favorite from Neon Bible and "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" one of my very favorites from Funeral (Win prefaced it by pleading with us, "I know you're all tired, I know you have work tomorrow, but please, please, just give me something for this one." And we did).
The encore was great, beginning with "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)," another personal favorite of mine, and finishing off the night with "Wake Up." This was really a pretty good show. Honestly, I wasn't expecting all that much because I had been a bit disappointed with The Suburbs and I was beginning to wonder how much I really liked this band anymore, but I was very impressed. I still like them, and that's good.
