On July 24, 2007, three years before this show, I saw the White Stripes' debut at Madison Square Garden. At the start of the show, Jack White walked on stage and announced, “I don’t think we’ve ever played this bar before…” It was a great beginning, a clever wink at the fact that the White Stripes were about to stray outside their comfort zone. They were about to take on an arena.
Sadly, they were not up to the challenge. Their guitar feedback was so loud that the usual funky riffs sounded like thrashing. At a smaller hall, their quirky, scratchy phrasing could have worked well, but at the Garden, it sounded like mumbling.
Considering the White Stripes’ failure, I was nervous for Arcade Fire. Were arenas just for Justin Bieber? Did Arcade Fire belong in the same venue as Disney On Ice? Adding to my nerves was the fact that I had looked forward to the show for months, claiming on numerous occasions that they were the band I most wanted to see in concert. Given these giant expectations, I could have easily been disappointed.
Lucky for me, Arcade Fire IS giant. The soaring melodies, the crescendos, the guttural wails…they seem built for more space. Couple those sounds with the striking images that flashed above the eight band members’ heads, and you had one heckuva show.
The show started exactly as it should have: with the propulsive “Ready to Start.” (Why was that not the first track on their new album? It fit much more than “The Suburbs.”) "Ready to Start" was ominous, atmospheric, and offered an immediate buy in. They followed that with strong Neon Bible tracks: “No Cars Go,” “Keep the Car Running,” and “Windowsill.” They also made me appreciate “Crown of Love” and “Rebellion” more than I did on Funeral.
In between the powerful songs, frontman Win Butler found time to throw in a clever taunt: “This is my favorite section of Madison Square Garden right here. [He points to a section near the front. That section cheers; the rest of the crowd boos.] That section is the best because that’s where Hakeem Olajuwon dunked over the Knicks in ’94, destroying their hopes of winning the NBA Finals! [The whole crowd boos. They then chuckle, begrudgingly.]”
By the middle of the concert, everything started to become a euphoric blur. Out of the blur, I could identify two high points: “Intervention” and “Wakeup.” “Intervention” had one of the most depressing lines I’d ever heard: “every spark of friendship and hope will die without a home.” But it also had one of the most upbeat sounds. “Wakeup” contained an equally crazy irony: the whole song was about repression, yet it laid bare your emotions. Who in the Garden did not feel the sad poetry of ''children, wake up, hold your mistake up / before they turn the summer into dust''? The transition in the middle of the song was also incredible, going from surrender to anger to action in three verses.
In the end, the word I’d use to describe the show is ‘epic.’ My students overuse the word like it’s their job, but here it fits. They did what the White Stripes couldn't; they delivered an EPIC performance.
Endnote: Spoon opened the show. Their performance was the same as last time, except fewer people knew them, so there was less enthusiasm. Though maybe enthusiasm wasn’t what frontman Britt Daniel was going for, considering he stumbled out in a pilly white t-shirt. Still like “Cherry Bomb,” still like “The Underdog,” still don’t get them overall.
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