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The Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem Gary, Veronica, and i got our act together Friday evening to roll down to Mountain View for the big indie rock show of the evening, Canadian goldenboys (and girls) the Arcade Fire supported by American indietronica jammers LCD Soundsystem. We dressed for cold weather, and hoped the elements would remain at bay as our seats were located just outside the venue's tented awning. However, with exquisite timing the skies opened up as James Murphy and co. took the stage, accompanied by thunder and lightning. A rousing welcome, to say the least. We switched to seats (no one seemed to be paying attention to what was printed on their tickets anyway) just under the awning, but half of me was still being rained on. What was awesome was that i hardly cared, bobbing my head to the funky rhythm of "Us V Them". The downpour abated by the second song and i was able to dry off while taking in the rest of the set. A bit more subdued effort than their previous show at Mezzanine, although that could potentially be attributed to the much larger venue. "Someone Great" however was much more engaging, benefitting from AF's Régine Chassagne step-in xylophone playing. V noted that it seems that the band performs "Daft Punk is Playing at My House" at light speed live, for some unknown reason as it minimizes the impact of the song's groove. The band got in a good hour or so before making way for the headliners. Unfortunately, it was much the same modus operandi for the ecclectic canuck collective. Having seen them mesmerize the Berkeley Greek Theater audience a few months back, it was anticlimactic to watch them try and fail to recapture that kind of intimacy on the grander scale of Shoreline Amphitheater. That's not to say that it was a bad set, or that this lack of resonance was the fault of the band. "No Cars Go" again provided a rallying cry early in the set, while modern classics like "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" and other more recent triumphs like "Keep the Car Running" and "Intervention" also maintained their energy. However, about the time the band performed the introspective "My Body is a Cage", i began to miss the Greek Theater. The way the members of the band connected with the audience, the way each new song brought anticipation and excitement. The crowd pleaser "Rebellion (Lies)" closed the main set. As in Berkeley, the crowd hummed the closing melody as the band departed, but unlike in the east bay the audience couldn't seem to get synchronized and the effort devolved into a mess of overlapping shrieks. We hung around for the encore, but as Win and co. chose "Wake Up" for their final number, a song i find to be a rather poor attempt at anthem construction, i consented to leave earlier with my less-enthused crew.
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