Arcade Fire

Not only is this is the sweatiest, most over-capacity gig since The Cure played The Barfly, it’s also the weirdest. The geeky dude with the floppy fringe last seen on double bass, somewhat resembling a member of Seafood, is now trundling round the venue banging a huge drum. With photographers clambering over themselves to grab a shot, it’s a chaotic end to a mesmerising show. It’s Trail Of Dead playing The Polyphonic Spree. The first ever London gig by The Arcade Fire and their crazy folk-pop post-punk warfare.

The long haul from Montreal clearly hasn’t stripped them of any ambition. The lavish euphoria of debut LP ‘Funeral’ is translated immaculately, maintaining the perfect balance between rawness and pomposity. Husband and wife, Win Butler *and percussionist, Régine Chassagne, share the vocals. His voice is a relatively generic honeyed-warble (a bit Conor Oberst, a tad *Kevin Drew *from *Broken Social Scene) while hers is blissfully Bjork-like, especially on finale, ‘In The Backstreet’. At one point, she’s wandering zombie-like round the stage shuddering, seemingly on the verge of exploding and for the most part, this sums up The Arcade Fire.

With an inexplicably fantastic grasp of dynamics (think QOTSA *or *Oceansize in terms of tightness), the major lifts, minor drops and cataclysmic set-pieces are brilliantly controlled. The stage often looks like a battleground with all the instrument swapping (violins, kettle drums, pianos) but throughout, the melodies remain poignant and it never gets lost in theatrics. It isn’t all ‘complex for the sake of complex’ however, and there’s bits that echo the pop simplicity of post-Beatles Lennon or Talking Heads, who they cover tonight.

Despite being created among the kind of dourness that would make Morrissey look like Ant and Dec, there’s something beautifully uplifting about everything The Arcade Fire do. The drama and density within each song positively shine like Mercury Rev. With the on-stage chemistry (Butler’s brother Will is also in the band) and lustful, jaw-dropping amount of emotion they exude, The Arcade Fire are set to redefine the meaning of ‘hype’. Welcome them to our world.