Arcade Fire: Is Today's Best Band "Go to Milwaukee" Great? -- Summerfest Concert Review

Concert Review

Arcade Fire

w/ opening act Manchester Orchestra 

American Family Insurance Amphitheater

Milwaukee Summerfest

July 8, 2018

@@@@@

A few months ago, a friend was telling me about some appealing bands he had seen at South by Southwest in Austin.

Without doubting that he had taken in some stellar shows, I tried to elicit whether he considered any of the acts truly great in the way I tend to judge such things, asking:

"How many bands would you see again if it meant driving to Milwaukee [from the Chicago area] and paying at least $60 for a ticket?"

My buddy was a bit taken aback by the question, seemingly dubious that there were any rock acts meriting clearing such a barometer, not just for him, but me as well.

I assured him that, including Ticketmaster fees, $60 was pretty much the low-end buy-in for most of
the theater, arena and stadium concerts I attend.

And that over the years, I had gone to Milwaukee--from my home in the Chicago suburbs--specifically to see dozens of cherished rock artists. 

With the latest excursion on the last day of Summerfest 2018, the tally seems to be 75 rock concerts by 50+ different artists--counting only trip-motivating headliners, not opening acts or the gamut of artists I've happened to catch on Summerfest side stages--that I've seen in Milwaukee (or Alpine Valley, Madison or Green Bay; I've also traveled to many non-Wisconsin locales for concerts, but am not including such shows here).

Yet while this isn't such a high bar, at least for me, it is getting a bit higher.

Though I still love rock concerts and don't mind attending many solo, my eagerness to schlep up to Milwaukee to do so has largely waned.

Last year was the first in many I hadn't ventured to brew town at least once, and yearly attendance at Summerfest is no longer automatic.

Truth be told, I don't love the drive up and down I-94, especially in returning late at night, usually by myself.

So while I'm glad I caught several cherished legends in Milwaukee--Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Pearl Jam, Paul McCartney, Prince, David Bowie, Tom Petty, Rush, AC/DC, etc., etc.--enough for it to have long felt like a second home turf, I assume I'll be far more sparing moving forward.

But also increasingly sparse are contemporary rock acts that I love--i.e. not "legacy acts" whose members are past 50, or 70, although many of those are still great live.

Though they themselves have been around since 2004, Arcade Fire has become--since I first saw them in 2011--my favorite modern band, especially live in concert.

They were awesome last October at Chicago's United Center--upon which I declared them still the world's best rock band--and their ongoing Everything Now Tour found them booked into the American Family Insurance Amphitheater (long the Marcus Amphitheater) on the closing Sunday of Summerfest.

I had bought a pavilion ticket when they went onsale in March--though as it turned out, I could've gotten a good seat with just $21 general fest admission, as the venue was half-full at best--and rather than drive, I opted to take an Amtrak from Glenview and stayed at a Milwaukee hotel after the show on Sunday night.

So this set the bar that much higher.

The question wasn't "would Arcade Fire be good?"

Based on four prior experiences, I was pretty certain the answer to that would be, "Yes."

But were they so good as to be worth going to Milwaukee, by myself, for not only a good deal more than $60 for the concert ticket--including Summerfest admission--but the cost of a round-trip train and downtown hotel?

With the caveat that I could afford and justify the expense, enjoyed my time and some other music at Summerfest--though unfortunately missed Cheap Trick, whose entire set on a nearby stage fell within that of Arcade Fire--and had a nice time on Monday, taking in Milwaukee's Basilica of St. Josephat, Public Market and Public Museum, my answer would again be a definitive:

"Yes."

While the amphitheater didn't allow for Arcade Fire to maintain the tour's arena set-up of playing in the middle of the floor within a boxing ring, following a solid opening set by Manchester Orchestra--a five-piece rock band from Atlanta, with whom I was unfamiliar--the headliners rather thrillingly reached the stage by walking through the pavilion crowd.

During the show, lead singer/guitarist Win Butler and his wife, multi-instrumenalist/vocalist Régine Chassagne, would both take turns performing from a perch in the pavilion, not far from my seat.

As has been standard, the first song played was the kinetic title track from 2017's Everything Now album, showcasing the 9-member band at full power.

While unlike Springsteen or Pearl Jam, Arcade Fire doesn't drastically revamp its setlist every night--of the 21 songs played in Milwaukee, 19 were heard last October in Chicago--it does rearrange the order a good bit from show-to-show.

On Sunday night, "Here Comes the Night Time" and "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)"--the latter from the band's 2004 debut, Funeral--kept things on high blast from the outset.

Another Funeral song--"Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)"--would forcefully follow, but not before Butler noted that the band hadn't played Milwaukee since the year of that album's release, promising it wouldn't be "another 14 years."

With my heart nearly exploding due to the truly thunderous sound and propulsive lighting accoutrements, I was actually glad the band then slowed things a bit with 2010's piano-driven "The Suburbs," rather than another supercharged Funeral song, "Rebellion (Lies)," which I suspected might come next.

"Ready to Start" amped things back up before a couple songs sung by Chassagne--"Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" and "Electric Blue"--again varied the pace, nicely.

Arcade Fire's latest album isn't their best, and "Put Your Money on Me" and "We Don't Deserve Love" from it threatened to slow things a bit too much, but I was glad we got a nice double shot from 2007's Neon Bible--"Keep the Car Running" and "No Cars Go"--and even that album's title track as the encore opener. 

"Reflektor" was also a joy, enhanced by Chassagne dancing both onstage and halfway up in the pavilion. 

The pacing wasn't quite perfect throughout--you can see how the full setlist--but the vast majority of the band's 2+ hours onstage was positively thrilling. 

As the main set wound down, a superb lighting extravaganza pumped up "Creature Comfort" before "Rebellion (Lies)" really revved things up again.

And closing the show, per the norm but never disappointing, was a full-throttle romp through "Wake Up," with the crowd singing along heartily, even at song's end. 

All in all, another remarkable show by Arcade Fire, proving yet again that they are the best rock band of relatively recent vintage, by a wide margin. 

Nothing I hadn't seen before, but I was nonetheless quite delighted to once again. 

Even if it meant driving--err, Amtraking--to Milwaukee.

---

This is a clip of part of "No Cars Go" that was posted to YouTube: 

Winner and Still Champion: At the United Center, Arcade Fire Retains Its Title as the World’s Best Rock Band -- Chicago Concert Review

Concert Review

Arcade Fire
w/ opening act The Breeders
United Center, Chicago
October 30, 2017
@@@@@

With all the concerts I go to, plus dozens of theatrical performances, it could be easy--in theory--to regard Arcade Fire as just another show.

No big deal.

A random entry on a busy calendar.

And even in finding the Canadian ensemble outstanding once again—as I had in 2011 and 2014–coming among seeing such legends & heroes as Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Paul Weller, U2, Metallica, Midnight Oil, Radiohead, Green Day, Billy Corgan, the late great Tom Petty and more, Monday's Arcade Fire gig at the UC couldn't have been all that significant, right?

Wrong.

This concert not only rocked and delighted from beginning to end, it mattered.

This isn’t just because Arcade Fire has great depth to its music and lyrics, pulled from all five of its
good-to-great albums, imaginatively put together a truly scintillating audiovisual blast or even that—at a time when all too few artists dare to speak out—lead singer Win Butler yelled, “Fuck Trump!” disregarding any career risks even as the band fails to sell as many tickets as it should. (My friend Paolo & I got upgraded to the 200-level upon arrival as much of the 300-level was closed, and I’ve repeatedly read about weak ticket sales in other markets.)

The truth is, as I see it, that Arcade Fire is simply the best rock band in the world right now, and it was important for me to bear witness to their live power remaining as blistering as ever.

...at a time when there are far too few modern rock acts I know and care about, and amid a stretch when several of my musical heroes have passed on. 

Now before you start picking on my dubbing them the World's Best Band, and get all “But what about...?,” I, of course, give them that title with some caveats, though none diminish how good I think they are.

With the Rolling Stones having played several concerts (in Europe) over just the past few weeks, Arcade Fire can’t be considered the Greatest Rock Band That Still Exists.

I last saw the Stones in 2015, and still love them live, but they, like most venerated veteran acts--e.g. The Who--can’t match Arcade Fire’s recorded output over the past dozen years. 

This too is why somewhat younger yet already legendary bands still putting out decent new music—Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Green Day, etc.—and still delivering outstanding concerts come up short as “The Best Current Rock Band.”

It's worth noting that the nine performing members of Arcade Fire make them more an ensemble than a band such as U2, with just its 4 original members, but though I still love Bono, Edge & co., their recent material doesn't much thrill.

I’m also not counting Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band as a band.

Or caring that Arcade Fire is a rock band whose sound of late is largely infused by dance.

For after beginning their show by walking—to a Michael Buffer-like introduction—into a boxing ring in the middle of the United Center, over the course of 2+ hours Arcade Fire retained their belt. 

And then some. 

Even with a much closer vantage point, the show didn’t seem quite as all-encompassing loud as at the same place in 2014, but from the opening “Everything Now”—the gleefully ABBAesque title track of the band’s new album—it was plenty thunderous. 

As the band, led by husband & wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, rampaged through "Signs of Life," "Rebellion (Lies)," "Here Comes the Night Time," and "No Cars Go," accompanied by dazzling lighting effects, the sonic force was so potent it almost felt dangerous.

As in if the pace kept up, something--my head, my heart, the roof, etc.--was bound to explode. 

So it was almost welcome—if not as viscerally thrilling—when a series of relatively slower songs ("Electric Blue," "Put Your Money on Me," "Neon Bible") quelled the pace a bit. 

But things were soon back to full-tilt, and though harder rocking tunes like "Ready to Start" and the set-closing "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" were inherently dynamic, the imaginative lighting displays--including those suggesting a boxing ring long after the real ropes had been removed from the stage--amped up everything else that was played.

So renditions of songs like "The Suburbs," the Chassagne-sung "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)," "Reflector" and the propulsive new "Creature Comfort" were also highlights on a night full of them, as part of what has been dubbed the Infinite Content tour.

I also appreciate that Arcade Fire mixes up their setlists a bit from city-to-city--see the Chicago setlist here--and was happy to hear "Intervention" and "We Used to Wait," which aren't constant staples.

Speaking of staples, I had just seen the legendary Mavis Staples open for Bob Dylan the previous Friday in Chicago--her hometown--and as she and Arcade Fire had collaborated on the single, "I Give You Power" earlier this year, I was hoping she was on hand to sing that song with them. But I'm guessing her tour commitments with the great Dylan precluded an appearance (and the song went unplayed).

But the closing "Wake Up" sent presumably everyone home to bed on a high note.

Everything phenomenal feels transcendentally so in the moment, but five days later--when I've found time to write a review after a busy week--this Arcade Fire show still feels like the best concert I've seen in 2017 (and there are 10 others I've given @@@@@).

For those who remain dubious--and probably weren't there--it has repeatedly been true that I have found Arcade Fire's power and prowess something you have to experience in person to truly appreciate.

Their live potency--which goes well beyond the songs to include the visuals, volume and even a bunch of cheeky graphics thematically mocking modern day materialism in the guise of the "Everything Now" brand--does not nearly translate on screen, even in concert videos.

The Breeders

So with tickets starting at just $25--and great seats remained at that price up through showtime--for, at the very least, one of the best bands in the world at the moment, it's a shame Arcade Fire came well short of filling the United Center.

Although rather sparse for a fine opening set--including the ever delectable "Cannonball"--from the Breeders (with Kim and Kelley Deal on hand; I wasn't sure if both sisters were still active), the crowd filled in enough to be far from embarrassing for the headliners.

But in 2014, Arcade Fire played two shows at the UC that if not quite sold out, were far closer to it.

Granted the band just headlined Lollapalooza here in early August, but articles about meager crowds elsewhere have seemed pretty common.

So as Arcade Fire is providing living proof that rock 'n roll--in the present tense, including both recording and touring--isn't yet dead, and actually still at times amazingly enthralling, it's a bit disheartening to note that nobody cares anymore.

Relatively speaking, of course.

Recognizing that the band's debut album, Funeral, garnered rave reviews upon its 2005 release and--though I liked it--I didn't get around to seeing the band until 2011, I fully understand being late to the party.

But if you're a rock 'n roll fan who grew up loving David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Talking Heads, U2, R.E.M., etc., and believe that the type of music you relish has passed you by as a live entertainment option from non-geezers, let me say this:

Literally a winner in the ring the other night, Arcade Fire proved they are still champion of what great rock 'n roll is all about.

With Unrelenting, Unrivaled Audiovisual Barrage, Arcade Fire Proves Themselves Singular -- Chicago Concert Review

Concert Review

Arcade Fire

w/ opening act Devo

plus DJ Dan Deacon

United Center, Chicago

August 26, 2014

@@@@@

Before going to the United Center on Tuesday night for Arcade Fire's first of two concerts there, I thought--having seen them twice before--that I might open this review by opining that they are the best band to arise in the 21st century.

Following the show, not only has that status been resoundingly reaffirmed, but I would even suggest that Arcade Fire has established itself as one of the best live acts in rock history.

Heady praise, I know. Perhaps hyperbolic. 

And if propagated by a post-show haze, so be it. (Though several hours have now passed.)

But, if anything, these acclamations may be more acute and constrictive than they need to be.

Even in loosely defining "arising in the 21st century" and with due respect to the White Stripes, Coldplay, the Killers, Black Keys, System of a Down and others--all of whom I like--it's not as is there have been a plethora of really great contemporary rock bands, especially among any still extant.

And while, at least today--specifically--I would give Arcade Fire the nod over any of the aforementioned, due to a combination of recorded and concert prowess (and consistency), none of their songs or even albums would likely rank among my Top 50, or even 100 or more, favorites of all-time.

Which oddly helps to connote why I have found them--once again--to be such a magnificent live act.

The band--more like an orchestra as there were up to 12 members onstage at a time--certainly have many terrific songs from four good-to-great albums, but it's not as if their catalog compares to that of Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Billy Joel, U2 or most of the "legacy acts" that now largely comprise my concert calendar.

But not only is there something inherently entrancing about seeing a band clearly in their prime--something I ruefully rarely am inspired to do these days, given the sparsity of new acts I know and like--but as concert performers, the Montreal-based collective goes exponentially beyond what their recorded oeuvre would suggest.

In other words, with clearly well-planned, practiced and presented stagecraft, Arcade Fire greatly amplifies their material--in multiple contexts.

I have attended hundreds of concerts in arenas, most frequently sitting in the highest level, but until Tuesday night I don't recall sitting in the 3rd deck of the United Center and having my seat rattle throughout the show.

In terms of sheer sonic force, I can't readily think of any concerts that have--well, rocked--me to the same extent.

AC/DC and Metallica come to mind, but those are basically power chord, bass and drum assaults.

With pianos, horns, violins, bongo drums and the typical rock gear, Arcade Fire's blast is one of instrumentation with greater depth and breadth than anyone--not even Springsteen with the mighty E Street band is as aurally rich and thunderous.

It's hard to describe, especially as while one can readily imagine many influences--Talking Heads, David Bowie, Springsteen, LCD Soundsystem, punk bands and much more--Arcade Fire isn't readily comparable to anyone else. But perhaps try to imagine a Wilco-Nirvana mashup and you may get a sense of what Arcade Fire sounds like live.

And with a variety of visual accoutrements--including costumes, masks, background videos, elaborate lighting, even a group of men proudly dancing in effeminate fashion during "We Exist"--Arcade Fire made their concert feel almost like a party.

Speaking of parties, I was rather late to discovering Arcade Fire's power & prowess as a live act.

I liked their much-acclaimed debut album, Funeral, and got their second, Neon Bible, but even in appreciating 2010's The Suburbs and seeing a full streaming concert around its release, I really didn't know "what the fuss was all about" until seeing them in April 2011 at the UIC Pavilion.

My review of that show was rather similarly fawning to this one, so although I can identify with any skepticism of those who have never seen Arcade Fire--especially indoors--I wasn't all that surprised by how good they were at the United Center.

Yet I was still awestruck astonished.

Of 20 songs played over a near 2-hour show, seven were from 2013's Reflektor, which being a double album with a prevalent dance vibe, isn't as thorough satisfying as earlier albums. For other bands featuring so much new material might have seemed dubious.

But not a single song dragged and the title tune, "Joan of Arc" (restarted after a technical snafu), "Afterlife" and "Normal Person" were among the show's highlights.

Of course, "Neighborhood 3 (Power Out)," "Month of May," "The Suburbs," "Keep the Car Running," "No Cars Go," "Ready to Start," "Rebellion (Lies)," "Sprawl II" and "Wake Up" were also tremendous.

(See the full 8/26/14 setlist for Arcade Fire in Chicago on Setlist.fm)

After bringing David Johansen, David Byrne and Marky Ramone onstage at recent New York shows--exacerbating Arcade Fire's trend of playing a locally-relevant cover--it was a bit disappointing that Tuesday night brought no special Chicago guest, merely a rendition of "Who Do You Love?" by Bo Diddley, who I've never much identified with the Windy City (wrongly, per Wikipedia).

But while I will feel a twinge of envy if I hear that Billy Corgan or Dennis DeYoung showed up on Wednesday, in a way Arcade Fire was so good on their own that a gimmicky special guest may have felt a tad unnecessary or even off-putting. (Note: Mavis Staples joined the band Wednesday for a version of the Rolling Stones, "The Last Time," which has no obvious ties to Chicago, not having been recorded at Chess Records' studios.)

For as it were, in terms of getting satisfaction from my ticket purchase back in late 2013, Arcade Fire had me at "Devo."

Though I've always known of the Ohio-based artsy punkish band--largely via their flowerpot hats and ubiquitous 1980 single "Whip It"--I now realize they are a band I should have seen live long before their opening stint for Arcade Fire.

Running through a terrific set of songs--I had done some pre-show Spotifying but not much--that included "Girl You Want," "Whip It," "Uncontrollable Urge," "Mongoloid," "Freedom of Choice," "Jocko Homo" (a.k.a. "We are Devo") and "Beautiful World--while undergoing three costume changes without leaving the stage (except for lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh), Devo sounded incredible.

In between their set and Arcade Fire, a DJ named Dan Deacon led a variety of audience-participation dance-offs on the General Admission arena floor.

On another night, having seen two fans in frog costumes dancing for the masses may have merited mentioning a bit earlier, or even a photograph. Heck, I haven't even mentioned that Arcade Fire took the stage after walking through the crowd on the floor.

There's actually a number of things I've left unsaid, including naming any of the band members. 

But I'm ready for bed and I think you've gotten the point.

Though--as with Springsteen, still my favorite ever performer of any ilk--one won't really get it until they see for themselves.

---

While it won't nearly do being there justice, here's a clip of the show closing "Wake Up" that I shot, which includes lead singer Win Butler's shout-out to Derrick Rose: