Arcade Fire

Arcade Fire at Westminster St John's Church, Mon 29 Jan

Review by Christopher Alcxxk

It seems almost redundant to point out the levels of anticipation surrounding these Arcade Fire gigs – if people have really been making such a fuss about it, then you, dear reader, would probably know about it. Then again, second guessing one’s readership is hella lame, and with such a subjective thing as a live review, a little context can go a long way...»

St John's Church

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Arcade Fire

• Win Butler - vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards
• Régine Chassane - vocals, synths, drums
• Richard Reed Parry - organ
• William Butler - percussion, synths
• Timothy Kingsbury - bass
• Howard Bilerman - drums, guitar

Members fled from Texas and Ontario at a young age and joined with local youth, making their home in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Somehow they survived the first terrible winters, and in August 2003 at the dusty Hotel2Tango they made some preliminary recordings for a new album.
Partially due to the intense heat, two of them married each other. The time in the sun was short lived however, and soon the terrible winter of 2004 was upon them. To keep warm they recorded the remaining nine tracks, at the Hotel and in Win and Régine's apartment, on 24 track 2" tape, 1/2" 16 track, 1/2" 8 track, optimus ctr-108 and God-forsaken computer.
When family members kept dying they realised they should call their record "Funeral", noting the irony of their first full length recording bearing a name with such closure.

(Taken from 'Funeral')»