Arcade Fire - Everything Now (July 28,2017) Album • Page 20

I wanted to consider that they are doing this in the round, which means there are more seats than these venues would normally hold, but even if all the seats that would normally be closed at the united center were, that would still be really bad.

 

If you go on Ticketmaster and look at any show on the tour...they're all bad.

 

I would be very happy for them to return to smaller / medium venues...their loss is my gain!

 

Have they ever sold out venues this big before though? Maybe it was just a dumb call in the first place and not so much an indicator of a loss of interest in the band.

 

I'd lean towards both, but more about them swinging too high. Quickly glancing at the Reflektor tour it looks like they played smaller, but still large, venues then.

 

In 2014 they did 3 shows at the Barclays Center. Not sure how close that is in size to MSG but similarish location.

 

Both Barclays and MSG are 18k capacity for shows. I attended 2 of those 3 Barclays shows (Friday and Sunday) and paid more by paying face value than I would have through the secondary market. So this is clearly a trend for them at this point, though certainly one that was exacerbated by the Everything Now kerfuffle.

 

They played United Center (the same Chicago venue as for this tour) 2 notes in a row on the Reflektor tour. Not completely sure but I believe both nights sold out. So they're pulling about 1/4th of the draw now... Granted in Chicago, they did just play Lollapalooza which may be hurting their sales for a show 3 months later supporting an album that most didn't love.

I'm still hoping to go. I may be in Detroit for work, but if not then I'll get some nosebleeds. I think they're only like $25 before fees or something too, which makes it even more sad they aren't selling. Hopefully if I go they end up bumping everyone's tickets up.

Whether or not you like Everything Now, they sounded really great at Lolla. They're still definitely a band worth seeing in my opinion.

 

Came here to say this. I figured Lolla was going to hurt the Chicago sales but man, that's shocking. I went to both Reflektor shows at the UC and I believe they were both sold out as well.

 

Wake Up live will never stop being the most exhilarating thing in life

 

I saw them at MSG in 2010 when they did the show directed by Terry Gilliam

 

They were incredible at Lolla. It is pretty sad to see this considering they are still one of if not the best live band going right now. Still think the record is unfairly maligned and that the hate has gone way too far. Smh.

 

They were fantastic as always last night. Power Out and Wake Up were chill inducing.

I will say though, I did not like the stage set up at all. The big pro is that everyone on the floor can get really close. I walked in right as Arcade Fire went on and ended up only 4 or 5 people from the front by the end.

However, not seeing the lead singers 100% of the time totally reduces the energy of the performance. Sure, they moved around a lot, but tbh I don't want to watch the keyboardist and bongo players 60% of the time. I want to see Win and Regine. My theory is that the quality of the concert hinges on 3 equal things: the actual music, the light show, and the charisma of the singers. This zapped a lot of the latter. I get that it's nice for people who bought seated seats, but those in GA paid a pretty penny for a reason. It kind of reminds of how Kanye West's floating stage actually really sucked in practice for a concert (are we allowed to say that yet?)

Also, the sound at MSG was terrible. Though, as someone who has been having ear issues lately I kind of appreciated that it was muted. I didn't appreciate a lot of the screeching feedback though.

Still though, it was blast because they are the best live act there is. Reflektor tour was the better show, but this one had an absolute perfect setlist. I would not change a thing.

 

Some stray thoughts on the MSG show:

-As usual, this band is a live powerhouse. Regardless of price, marketing exhaustion and album reception, they are still a can't miss act for me.

-The stage setup was pretty darn cool, but there is definitely still a "front" of the stage despite the instrument swapping and movement. Win had his back to my side most of the show, but that's okay. I think I prefer a normal stage setup where the band can feed off each other more though. That being said, it was awesome when Bowie appeared on the video boards during his part in "Reflektor."

-"Put Your Money On Me"...still absolute fuego. Thought that and "Signs of Life" were the strongest of the new tracks live.

-"Infinite Content" is traaaasssshhhhhh.

-Maybe it's just hitting 11 Phish shows at MSG in July/August (then 3 more in September in Colorado), but man...the readjustment to a more "normie" crowd is brutal. No one in my section was getting down at all, and glances around the venue it looked like no one was really moving? I could be wrong but I don't know.

-This was my 7th Arcade Fire show and my first "Neon Bible" which was so beautiful. The "Neon Bible" through "Afterlife" stretch was stellar and just proves how many insane songs this band has.

 

@Kyle is hk Well said, I think you articulated my problems with the stage in a bit more detail. And agreed about the sound, what the hell was going on? MSG has nailed down the acoustics pretty much everywhere in the venue apart from the seats in the 200's blocked by the Chase Bridge...but I thought last night's sound left a lot to be desired unfortunately.

 

how was the crowd? my friend went and got a ticket for like nothing and had a really good seat in the lower bowl.

 

See my post above. Thought the crowd was lame as all hell. Like statues.

 

yeah, i should have clarified - more so was wondering about the size of the crowd. there was the discussion earlier about ticket sales.

 

People were very much dancing in GA, at least where I was, especially by the end. It was an older crowd that talked way too much tho. Then again, I've never been to a show where I didn't think people talked to much.

Seriously people, shut up and dance.

 

It actually looked realllllly full to me. There was one small empty section at the tippy top, not sure if they didn't sell those or just relocated them.

 

Oh, around 8:55 I was looking at my section and all over and thought "oh dear..."

But by 9:05 it definitely filled up and looked packed.

 

I loved chasing Kanye's floating stage around. The Buffalo show for him wasn't sold out though so that made it easy to run around. Not sure if AF will be the same in Toronto.

 

Yea I think the Saint Pablo tour was far and away the greatest live concert experience I've ever had. Something I will never forget.

And I'll second "Signs of Life" being absolute killer live.

And as I've said before, regardless of your thoughts on the rollout, the band is very self aware about what songs people want to hear. They've already done an amazing job picking the best songs of EN to play live. "Put Your Money on Me", "Everything Now", "Creature Comfort", "Signs of Life", "We Don't Deserve Love" and "Electric Blue" are all welcome additions to the AF live canon imo.

 

Maybe it was just because I was seated for the Saint Pablo tour. But it was just so boring production wise from that perspective. It's just him slowly getting closer and farther away. Sometime tilting. No lights or any other kind of production. I enjoyed the Yeezus tour 10000x more

 

I went to two shows on the Pablo tour. One seated and one GA and even though GA was infinitely better I still loved the seated show