Live Review : Arcade Fire @ The M.E.N

Arcade Fire last night proved that they deserve their standing as one of the top bands around today with an explosive 90 minute performance that wowed all at the M.E.N.

Arcade Fire are not your normal kind of live act for starters there's eight of them and at times I had to question to myself if they had snuck another person on as the drummer who is generally hidden by the hoard of band members would emerge from his kit to play guitar as the multi-instrument band ran around changing who played what at different songs and with the bodies and sheer energy each member brings you can't help but be captivated by the bands performance.
Following on from the release the simply brilliant The Suburbs, Arcade Fire's songs are seemlessly transformed from the studio to stage with perfomances of songs such as 'Rococo,' 'Ready To Start' and 'The Suburbs' with songs such as 'Wake Up,'  'No Cars Go' and 'Rebellion (Lies)' already classics for the band with Wake up demanding woahs from the crowd. With each song being met with raptorous roars of approval Arcade Fire truely rocked the M.E.N.

Entering to an array of movie trailers including an inspired part of 1979 film 'The Warriors' Arcade Fire immeditately jumped into Ready to Start. One thing that impressed me about the Canadian based group was their non-stop attitude, there was rarely a chance to breathe after one song before Win and Co have started another hit. As the set continues the energy rises and the members way of playing their instruments with an appetite of destruction toward them invites the crowd to go crazy which they dualy oblige. Theres no doubt about it Arcade Fire pack anthems into their live perfomances 'No Cars Go' and 'Rococo' just two of these with the latter including a homage to the Manchester supergroup Oasis with Win singing 'Champagne Supernova'

The hits continue until a break in which another film trailer is shown from 'Camelot' in which Vanessa Redgrave sings about the lusty month of May, following this the band re-enter playing their nod to the same month. Next is one of their all time best songs Rebellion (Lies) and finally ending with The Suburbs which for me was the only bad choice with the setlist as personally I prefer gigs to end with a bang whereas this was a more gentle approach. Upon research I saw that this is not usually the way the band ends and they normally end with the biggest band they have in their arsenal (Wake Up) however I think the change may have been due to the fact that these are the final shows on The Suburbs tour and may be a goodbye to the album. Also, this gig got a marked down due to the subdued nature of the people around me but I cannot blame the band for that as it was only the people around me who seemed more content not moving to the music but oh well.

All in all this gig was right up there with the best I have seen amazing musically and energetic to the full. Outside on the Merch stand there were t-shirts bearing "Who The Fuck is Arcade Fire?" a reference to the storm that surrounded the bands storming wins at the Grammys and with performances like the one I witnessed it surely cannot be long until the world knows who the fuck Arcade Fire is!