I caught the second night of Arcade Fire’s two-night stand at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night. It felt like a truly triumphant occasion – like Arcade Fire had won. It was a big win for me too, as I was previously 0-2 in catching the band live (having had to give up tickets to two local shows – at much smaller venues – in years past).
Win Butler spent a very respectable amount of time up close and personal in the crowd. Seems like he’s fine-tuning his crowd entries and exits, which is ok by me (maybe next year he can borrow Springsteen’s knee pads). The Garden crowd (comprised of a wide variety of ages, I should note) held it’s own but it was ultimately no match for this band and their raging singalongs.
The crappy-quality photo above taken by my blackberry actually tells a good story. As do these fan-produced videos of the final encore, Wake Up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcXQqE9bSmc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjwVuGvVyfw
Oh yeah, and it was broadcast live on youtube, so you can see what the pros saw too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vS5crSXJ6k&feature=channel
