arcade fire @ brixton academy

it seems a little silly to write about this now because my excitement has mostly ebbed. the show was pretty fantastic, though. i was sadly too small to see everything, but the brilliance of it was that it was so theatrical. musically, it goes up there in the top five concerts i've ever been to - visually, i think it might have taken the title, had i been able to see more. the band(s) were so into it and the lights were great, they had several tv screens across the back, which you can see and the neon bible was animated too. musicians switched instruments - something i am a particularly huge fan of and would want to do if i were ever in a band - and i guess my absolute love of their first album really put it over the edge. they didn't play too many songs off their new album because... well, i think they may have wanted to but realised that only some people had heard the new stuff because it had come out just a week or so before the gig. and having listened to the new album just once, i'm not in love with it like i was/am the first but i'm sure i will be after the third or fourth listen.

i think i've just about covered it. but one thing i do remember thinking after the show, besides that my throat hurt from screaming/singing along was that live shows like these are the reason live gigs are going to become much more prevalent in the near future. the fact that bands like arcade fire and the fratellis can play multiple nights at a venue like brixton academy is pretty rad. it also means that if you want to see a show, you're going to have to get on mailing lists and on some sort of automatic debit-scheme to actually get tickets (e.g. me waking up at 8:30am the day these tickets went on sale and waiting at my computer to click 'buy' at 9am; or, the 5 nyc shows selling out in something crazy like 10 minutes...)

quick update:
i'm in montreal now. it's snowing. and i seriously love joanna newsom's ys album.