Arcade Fire with the Breeders at the Xcel Energy Center, 10/29/17

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Everything Now
A friend invited me last-minute to see the Arcade Fire on their stadium tour. I had caught them once at a festival and remembered it as a raucous celebration of a show -- in my memory, now, it's more of a bright roar than anything. I thought it sounded fun to revisit, even though I haven't really heard any of their last couple of albums.

The gimmick of Everything Now is that the band is sponsored by a bunch of fictional global corporations. The logos cover all the merchandise, the performers' clothing, and scrolled across the scoreboard and banners in the arena. I wasn't sure how I would like this. The pre-show was fascinating and also irritating, by design. Every few minutes a green-screened cowboy would take over the scoreboard and make an announcement in a patently fake accent.

Win Butler's visit to our section
Just as the band was entering, in a boxing-style procession to the center of the arena, I realized I had lost my wallet. I was panicked for a few minutes and finally resolved to just enjoy the show and try to find it afterward. I hoped someone would have turned it in. (They did -- thanks, stranger!) The entry and the first song or so passed in kind of a blur.

The stage was set up as a boxing ring, with the drumset in the middle on a rotating platform, and the performers' stationary instruments and microphone stands arranged all around it. The performers moved around the ring constantly, so that you could see different people on your side of the ring for each song. For some songs, the singer(s) would leave the arena entirely and walk through the crowd. Camera people followed them so that the livestream could be played on the scoreboard. At one point, Régine (vocals, violin, etc.) ended up at in the crowd under a disco ball with a set of costumed dancers. Win (lead vocals, guitar, etc.) made a procession up one of the bleacher staircases, and happened to end up right next to us, since we were on the aisle. It was pretty fun.
Both Butler boys

It was a show unlike any I had seen. I'm not a big fan of stadium shows, which are expensive and lack the kind of up-close concert experience I generally seek (Win's excursion into our section notwithstanding). I would go see Arcade Fire again, though.

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