Arcade Fire @ The Greek Theater 10/02/10

[El Dingo]

The Greek Theater in Berkeley is one of my favorite outdoor venues. The coliseum-style concrete tiers of seats, the majestic columns behind the stage, the sun slowly setting in the distance and the crowd milling about with anticipation.

Calexico took the stage shortly after 8:00. I had heard a couple albums but had never seen them live. The Arizona-based band played their signature blend of Tex-Mex/Indie rock with energy and enthusiasm. The crowd was very supportive and I would definitely see them again.

After Calexico finished the crew quickly cleared the stage and revealed the Arcade Fire set. The new album is called 'The Suburbs' and the set looked like a freeway underpass with a large 'billboard' framing a video screen.

I can't provide a set list since they played a lot of stuff off the new album which I was unfamilar with. They played nearly every song from 'Funeral' and 'No Cars Go' from 'Neon Bible.

The band was tight but seemed a little tired.They were a little less animated than on the previous tour but sounded great. The drummer is amazing, moving so fast at times you can hardly see his hands.

I would have given 5 stars but I really wanted more songs from 'The Neon Bible'.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I'm liking them more and more. Isn't one of the drummers a girl?

[El Dingo]

The primary drummer is a crazy guy. However they switch instruments a lot and a girl will drum for dual-percussion numbers or while the crazy guy runs through the audience.

[thatguy]

I saw the Neon Bible show at Shoreline. Crummy venue, cold day. Good show though. I was thinking about seeing their show in Big Sur, but it sold out in 2 minutes...

Have you tried this yet:

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--tg

[Drunk Monk]

I was outside the venue on Sat. I was picking up a friend, Professor Meir Shahar (who gave me a great pull quote for my book), from SFO and delivering him to the Women's Faculty Club at Cal. He's lecturing there this Tues. Neither of us really knew where the WFC was exactly. The google map was inadequate and I forgot I had the GPS in my car, so we wound up driving all around campus on sidewalks and the wrong way down one-way streets, until we found it. It was fun in a mischievous way, but it took me two hours from leaving SFO to delivering him to the Club (S.F. was bumper to bumper). All the while, I could hear Arcade Fire at the Greek and wound up driving past it several times. I dropped him off at around 10:30 and thought, 'aw heck, I should crash the greek just to say 'hi' to some Rock Med friends' but after getting the third perfect parking space stolen right from under my nose, I said 'to hell with this' and went home to watch SNL.

If I knew you were there, tg, I might have tried harder and we could have hooked up for beers after. I thought you were going to HSB...

[thatguy]

I wasn't there. I was at HSB. I saw Arcade Fire last year...

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

I meant ED obviously. :oops: