Article Of Faith: Arcade Fire at the Santa Barbara Bowl

ARCADE FIRE

w/OWEN PALLETT AND DAN DEACON

SANTA BARBARA BOWL

SANTA BARBARA, CA

04 AUGUST, 2014

Win Butler is The Reflektor

Regine pops up in the center of the Bowl

When the books are closed on the current Santa Barbara Bowl season, retrospective conversations will definitely involve the appearance of Arcade Fire, on the home stretch of their almost year-long Reflektor tour. From humble beginnings,  we caught a stripped-down, ragged but right Halloween show at the Palladium in Hollywood last year that was among the first live performances of Reflektor material, with none of the attendant pomp and circumstance that would characterize this show. The raw passion of Arcade Fire in performance remains undimmed, and no matter how over the top their set pieces can be, (March of the Bobbleheads, giant mirrored thing, etc), they still find a way to connect. Opening duties for the evening fell to Canadian virtuoso Owen Pallett, who reappeared as a valuable part of the Arcade Fire touring act. Holding down the middle, and setting the tone for what was to come: Baltimore's own party-starter extraordinaire: Dan Deacon, whom I didn't think existed in the daylight hours, but he held his own, and managed to get the crowd involved with his hyper charm.
As the formal Reflektor production took shape, regional specific cover choices became a trend, ranging wildly in taste, but we hit the goldmine as they led off with the Dead Kennedys "California Uber Alles", using it as a statement of intent, energy wise, and never really looked back. Amount of attention to Reflektor tunes has varied throughout the tour, but here we got the bulk of the LP, with 4 of the first 6 songs hailing from it, and the tour-polished takes were a far cry from what we heard last October. The Dead Kennedys cover and an incendiary take on Funeral's "Neighborhood #3: Power Out" broke up the run. Much of the attention focused on the set pieces, such as "It's Never Over", featuring Regine Chassigner popping up in the middle of the audience to do a call and response with a still-stage bound Win Butler. The power of Arcade Fire truly showed in the simplest of moments, with Regine's spotlight moment during "Sprawl II" and the band's closing tradition of "Wake Up" showing the unbreakable bond with the audience.
On this night, Arcade Fire was a band on a mission, and having seen them many times since the days of Funeral, I'll happily say that this was their most powerful, fully sustained show to date. With a recent hometown appearance at Pop Montreal officially finishing the tour, hopefully they're all off to a well earned rest.

Win heists a cellphone from the audience

OWEN PALLETT

DAN DEACON

Arcade Fire's Halloween Party

ARCADE FIRE

HOLLYWOOD PALLADIUM

31 OCTOBER, 2013

Commensurate with the release of Reflektor, Arcade Fire put together a small series of tuneup shows to celebrate and get a feel for how the new material translated live. Following dates in Brooklyn and Miami and a Bay Area appearance at Neil Young's Bridge School Benefit, they did two street gigs in LA, and to top it off, took over the Hollywood Palladium on Halloween. Dress code was formal/costume with venue discouraging masks, so tux and facepaint made the day, and it only took two songs in to be completely soaked in sweat. They arrived in the "big head figures" featured in the videos for "Reflektor" and "Sprawl II", strolling up a red carpet serenaded by mariachis, to the joy of the lined up masses. After two days of industry gigs, the band seemed charged and ready, feeding off the partisan crowd in a rare small venue gig. The Reflektor material translated well, and the band tore into it with abandon. As always, while Win Butler is the main vocalist and face of the group, it's Regine Chassigne who is its heart and soul. Flying around the stage between instruments, backing vocals, or pantomiming songs, she put on her own little pageant for anyone savvy enough to watch.
"Reflektor" was the perfect entry point, and attention did not flag through its eight minute duration.  Longtime fans were rewarded as they jumped into "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out), and the floor went ballistic. To take in the journey of this band, from scrappy Montreal upstarts, to their left-field Grammy win for Record Of The Year for The Suburbs, was to ruminate on what made them and kept them going. It's that innate sense of community/inclusion that makes this band so special. The remainder of the set kept almost exclusively to the new album, and "Joan Of Arc", "Afterlife" and especially "Normal Person" benefitted from their live energy. Continuing their subtle tributes to the passing of Lou Reed, they managed to work some of the Velvet Underground's "Beginning To See The Light" into the intro of "Headlights Look Like Diamonds", from their debut EP. Loosening up, they rocked out a tight cover of Devo's "Uncontrollable Urge", and finished the set with "Here Comes The Night Time". Finally claiming the spotlight fully, Regine led the crowd through "Sprawl II" to cap off a transcendant evening.

...working the red carpet, pre-show