[kj] (NKJ) Arcade Fire at The Shine in LA Last Night

[TB]

Mark Kolmar wrote:


> Curious what you think about the new Arcade Fire album. One of your

> comments sounds like the material is strong, but you don't care for

> the presentation on record. I think Funeral is great. I never warmed

> to Neon Bible, which for me combined the worst of their bombast and

> the tendency toward borderline too-precious-for-words (think Death Cab

> For Cutie). The Suburbs does a lot to affirm my early enthusiasm.


Although I've warmed to the new album in the past couple weeks (I was pretty disappointed when I first heard it), I really think the
new songs really come across vastly better live than they do on the record.  "Ready To Start" doesn't do much for me on the record,
but live, especially as the opening song it really shines.  I still think "Rococo" plods like a mofo and I doubt it'll remain in
their live repertoire after this tour.  

This is something similar to my initial dislike of Bruce Springsteen back in the late 70's - my best friend played the shit outta
"Darkness Of The Edge Of Town" saying this guy was the best thing since electricity and I just had a real hard time getting into his
stuff ("I can't understand a fucking thing he's singing about - does he have marbles in his mouth all the time?").  That all changed
when I saw him live in '81 during "The River" tour which remains to this day the best pure rock n' roll concert I've ever seen.
Like Springsteen (and U2 up until the '90's), Arcade Fire is a wholly different animal seen live versus listening to on album.

The funny thing about Neon Bible - I like bombast and the big church organ sound and rather exotic arrangements at the forefront of
that album which is mostly missing on the new tunes.  A lot of the new material has kind of a traditional and kinda boring "rock"
sound, like a mid 80's Tom Petty record.  In fact I was joking with someone who also really likes Arcade Fire that Jeff Lynne (who
produced a few Petty albums among other things) should have produced "The Suburbs."

One other thing, imo the " too-precious-for-words" element comes primarily from Regine Butler especially live.  She's definitely an
acquired taste as a singer live but once I put aside the silly dance moves and dramatic gesturing, watching her or more aptly,
listening to her sing songs like "Haiti" and "Sprawl II" is intensely moving.

T.B.