Cate’s Musings

I saw Arcade Fire last night at the Greek Theater in Griffith Park, now home to all sorts of creepy stuff after the fire earlier this month. My friend Bob was quick to make plenty of jokes about the very real possiblity of “The great Arcade Fire fire of ‘07″ breaking out, but thankfully no flames were spotted.

Instead we watched a fantastic concert put on by a whole gaggle of Canadians who really know how to bring it. After seeing Arcade Fire open up for David Byrne in June of ‘05 and reading reviews of the show at Coachella this year, I was ready for these guys put on one hell of a live show. They did not disappoint. 10 musicians occupied the stage with all sorts of crazy instruments, including a hurdy gurdy. (I had to look that up – I didn’t actually know the name of a hurdy gurdy and if you try to say you did I won’t believe you.) The band also likes to trade instruments, making for all kinds of fun band interaction and drum banging. And the crowd was into it, singing along and freaking with appropriate amounts of glee when Win Butler (the lead singer who is actually Texan, not Canadian) walked all the way up into the nose bleed seats.

I knew at least one woman got more than she expected when I heard her say “I hugged the lead singer and then licked my hands”. Now that’s devotion.

My pictures sucked – this was the best one I got: