I saw Arcade Fire in Glasgow on Friday. It was a good show -- the performance not quite as spirited and energetic as the Vancouver show I saw two years ago, but they were still very good. The new music is a whole lot darker than the first album, which might explain the feeling of lower energy. Anyway, it was a huge arena show, don't know if it was sold out but it felt that way. The band, especially Win Butler seemed very happy to be in Glasgow, and completely infatuated with its very special brand of Scottish enthusiasm.
The best thing about the show was the visual element. It is not a new thing for bands to project videos behind them, nor is it new for a band to project a live feed of the show, so the people in the cheap seats can get a good view too. But Arcade Fire have recently been playing around quite a bit with low-end video aesthetics -- the kind you find in amateur porn or cable access tv, or especially in surveillance and cctv. For the stage set-up, they've strategically placed lipstick video cameras on mic stands, drums, the floor and hanging from above. 
The grainy, high contrast and fish-eye image is then projected on various large circular screens set up around the stage, as well as on the backdrop. The result is a fantastically creepy, voyeuristic peek into what it might feel like to be onstage, inside Regine's drum, or staring directly into Win's face as he sings about how his body is a cage. I know the band has become very successful, deservedly so, and it may be less 'cool' to pledge allegiance to them now than it was, say, two or three years ago. But frankly, I don't care. The music is interesting and thickly layered, soulful and sincere. Despite their success they are absolutely not rock stars, nor do I imagine they ever will be. When I saw them in Vancouver, only a few months after they blew up, the sense that they couldn't figure how they went from playing tiny art galleries to sold-out hockey stadiums in a matter of months was palpable. I'm happy to report that this sort of wild disbelief of the level of success attained was still quite apparent on Friday.
Also, please check out the website for their latest album, www.neonbible.com. Even if you don't like the music, you must check out what they're doing with interactive web-based animation. Really awesome, inventive stuff. The band website is very good as well.
Speaking of websites, I'm currently in the process of uploading a complete interim artist website at www.culturedcuttlefish.co.uk. Unfortunately, as I don't really know what I'm doing, it is taking a very LOOOOONG time and has been fraught with technical difficulties. Hopefully it'll be up and running by the end of the night.
Ok, good for now.
