Well, that was certainly a unique experience.
Arcade Fire's concert on Thursday night in front of a packed Air Canada Centre crowd affirmed the Montreal-based band's commitment to providing their fans with an engaging, entertaining and eccentric live show. The night could probably be best described as live rock show, meets performance art, meets a big, festive party.
The quirky fun began with the arrival of a colourful crowd, clad in an array of suits, costumes and whatever eye-catching garb the energized audience members could get their hands on. This is a mandate from Arcade Fire themselves, who insist that their fans dress for the occasion.
After a pair of DJ sets that included a "Yo Gabba Gabba" mix by Kid Koala and a highly coordinated dance circle involving all of the floor denizens, Arcade Fire emerged to a rather underwhelming response, largely because the crowd had already been screaming and dancing itself hoarse long before the indie rock heroes hit the stage.
The band's 20-song set had the look and feel of a big, 14,000-person love-in. A gussied up crowd with no visible inhibitions or self-consciousness shook, swayed and shimmied as Arcade Fire cranked through a flowing string of tracks, most coming off the critically acclaimed new Reflektor album. The collective sound of the 12-member group (the core band features six players, with six additional touring musicians along for the ride) was raw and unpolished, lending a gritty feel to the spirited affair.
For a little over 90 minutes, Arcade Fire breezed through a songbook filled with dance-happy tracks, with "Power Out" and "Rebellion" generating the biggest responses among the pre-encore offerings. No moment, however, better captured the evening's energy than the show-closing hit "Wake Up," which caused the crowd to explode – on cue – into a unified harmony of "whoa-oh"s.
Win Butler and Co. seemed genuinely thrilled to be back in town (and, more specifically, back in Canada), embracing what Butler called "this little bastion of liberalness," particularly in light of the band's recent Academy Awards visit (members of the band had been nominated for the score of Her), where they had seen protest signs like "Mandela in Hell" outside the Nokia Theater. That being said, they couldn't resist a jab at Rob Ford, trotting out a guy in a fat suit wearing a digital screen depicting the Toronto mayor during "Normal Person." Naturally, the crowd ate it up.
On this night, there wasn't much that the crowd wasn't willing to eagerly embrace. Good thing, then, that the enthusiasm and energy of the fans was reciprocated so fully by their beloved band.
