The Roof is on (Arcade) Fire

Our old friend Bob Marley once said "The good thing about music is when it hits you feel no pain" but I had nearly the exact opposite experience at The Arcade Fire concert last Thursday. It was a show so good that rather than feeling blissfully numbed-out, I felt like I was on an heightened emotional roller coaster that can only be compared to when I drink Whiskey.

Every time the beginning notes of a song started it was like kicking back a shot - feeling it work into my blood, and warm me from the top of my head, through my fingers and into my toes. Even my skin felt like it was buzzing, like my body wasn't just a definite hunk of matter but more like those shapes you see on infrared cameras - just a ball of energy, glowing against black. I think it's the closest thing I've ever had to a religious experience.

There's something about The Arcade Fire's music that makes me electric. I'm no music scholar, but I think it's the tempo. The way the cords stack up, one against the other, always building, to the point that I crave release. Each one makes me feel like I'm in the climactic scene of a movie - like I'm running through an airport. There is a sense of urgency in their music, which I think strikes a cord of people my age; with 20-somethings who have so much energy, and so many things to do in front of them that there is no time for a lull between choruses.

At the show I was reminded of listening to the Bruce Springsteen song Born to Run in the car with my parents* : how I never wanted that song to end, and how, even then, the right music could make me feel that I was more than just physical. When all the alt bullshit of 'not being able to like a band once they sell out a big venue' passes, I have a feeling The Arcade Fire will be the music that plays on late summer evenings when I grow up, the same way Bruce did. It will remind me of these years when I'm 20, and it will provide the atmosphere that everyday moments tend to lack when they are actually happening. Well, the moments that aren't escalating to the tune of The Suburbs.

(*apparently, I should work for Spin magazine. But, I'm not hip enough to have already known that picture existed - so I just looked like a jack ass when I shared my 'astute musical observation' with someone this morning).

(p.s.) quote from DBC Pierre on Fate Songs | another great show: Deerhunter | confessing my love for the Peter Gabriel song 'Your Eyes' | A pentax photo of some CD's and a wish to wilco