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Concert Review: Arcade Fire at Asheville Civic Center 5/02/07

Asheville, NC is a very cool town and it seems to be a social anachronism in the south. It’s a city of about seventy thousand nestled in the [quite beautiful, actually] Blue Ridge Mountains. It has become a center for independent music and counter culture, and my friend Drew tells me that Asheville was rated the number one city in the country in which to reinvent yourself. Apparently, due to lack of economic growth in the last 80 years, Asheville's downtown has remained essentially the same since the twenties, and has the highest concentration of art-deco architecture in the United States. This, combined with local shops and a counter-culture revival makes it a town full of character, art, music and an anti-establishment bent. So, it was both a surprising and obvious choice for the Neon Bible tour. Not ever having been, I thought the obvious stops would be Charlotte or Raleigh/Durham or Chapel Hill. But, upon arriving, their choice made more sense.
We got to the Civic center around eight o’clock, and the National, who aren’t a bad band at all, had already started. They played for about an hour. Arcade Fire only took about thirty minutes to set up, which I really appreciate. I hate it when there’s a long gap between opening acts and the band I actually came to see. One thing of note: the crowd was pretty diverse. At some concerts I’ve been to, like the Joanna Newsom show I went to last year in Greensboro, I felt like I wasn’t “cool” enough to attend. With all of the scarves, thick black rimmed glasses and thrift-store outfits I felt like I stood out like a sore thumb. This was not the case in Asheville; there were folks from lots of different scenes and there was not an air of “I’m too cool to even be here” at all. Another thing is that the ushers were being pretty anal about seating. They made sure everyone was in his or her correct row and seat, and of course standing or rushing the stage were big no-nos. When the band came on stage Win Butler put an end to that, encouraging everyone – if they wished – could come up to the stage and enjoy the show, so I left my back-balcony seats pretty early in the show. They opened with Black Mirror, followed by with what is currently my favorite song off they new album, No Cars Go. They played a healthy mix of songs from Funeral and Neon Bible, and after Régine finished singing her parts in Haiti, Black Wave/Bad Vibrations and The Well And The Lighthouse, she took over drums for the rest of the show. Another interesting element in their live show is the visualizations behind the band. Between the projected and constantly opening and closing Neon Bible, visualizations of the band while they were playing and I don’t know what else was going on up there, but if one had been doing acid or mushrooms – which I definitely was not – it would’ve been an interesting time. I really do like it when a band includes some sort of multi-media in their performances. It makes it more than just a music act, but a dynamic.
One thing that does stand out with Arcade Fire is that they obviously love making music, and really do get into their show. Everyone seems to be having a really good time, and this night in particular I felt like violinist Sarah Neufield was about to pop. Over all it was a great show, one of the best [shows in general] I’ve ever been to. The band and crowd had great energy and fed off of each other. The only thing I would say it lacked is a rendition of My Body Is A Cage, the moody final track on Neon Bible. Then again, the crowd probable would’ve gotten out their lighters at that point, and who wants to participate in that kind of cliché?

Set List:
Black Mirror
No Cars Go
Haiti
Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
Black Wave/Bad Vibrations
Windowsill
The Well And The Lighthouse
Ocean of Noise
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
Rebellion (Lies)
Keep The Car Running

Encore #1: Intervention
Encore #2: Neon Bible

Joanna Newsom - Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band E.P.

When I heard about Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band, I immediately had to have it. Unfortunately, I live in Raleigh where the music scene is decent, but the selection at the record store is sometimes a little behind other places in the country. However, I was going to visit a friend in a much bigger town that next week, so I decided it could wait. It was well worth that wait.
This is a very solid follow up to such a monumental album as YS. It has three songs, one new and two old. The album starts off with the new song: "Colleen," a story about a woman with an at least questionable past who loses her memory after [nearly?] drowning and is reborn the virtuous "Colleen." But, she finds there is something missing and yearns for a life she knows nothing about. This song has touches of [of course] appalachia and also Irish/Celtic folk music. I can see how this song came out of the Ys sessions, but it doesn't quite fit with the rest of the album, so it seems appropriate for "Colleen" to be released in this format. This is followed by a beautiful version of Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie with backing vocals by dummer Neal Morgan. Both of these songs are great and stand on their own, but the reason you should spend $10 on this E.P. is the remix of Cosmia.
Ys was my favorite album of 2006. While, I do love every song, "Cosmia" was the weakest on the album. Perhaps after listening to every incredible minute [all seventeen of 'em] of "Only Skin," I didn't have the patience for "Cosmia." At times it felt just a little bit forced, like I had to listen to it in order to get to the end of the album(I have this weird, neurotic thing about listening to an album from start to finish.) As I said before, Ys was my favorite album of '06, so I can't knock it around too much. However, this new, reworked version -- when compared to the album release -- tarnishes, just a little bit, what I thought was and to some degree still is a perfect record. It is clearly a superior recording in comparison to the album version. First, Newsom replaces the orchestrations of [the great] Van Dyke Parks with a much simpler and more approachable arrangement, which includes the banjo, tambura, drums, and an eerily played musical saw that makes for a more organic and emotionally charged song that that builds to the kind of crescendos we saw in "Monkey and Bear" or "Only Skin." On Ys, "Cosmia" is the shortest song on the record at a little over seven minutes(that's an anthem for most artists!), but "the Band" extends it another six minutes in a jam that skillfully dissipates all of the tension built up in the first half of the song. It really is a riveting song that commands all of ones attention.
One thing I have noticed about Newsom is that her voice has definitely improved, especially on Ys and the Ys Street Band. It's not "cleaner" or more "beautiful," [I do think her voice is beautiful, by the way] it's that she has gained control. Remember that she is a classically trained harpist, and has a educational background in creative writing. So, obviously her musical arrangements and lyrics are going to be her strength; now that she she has control over this unique and extremely expressive voice, it has become an incredible tool with which she is able to make outstanding music.

Neon Bible

This is ridiculously cool. Arcade Fire plays Neon Bible in an Elevator and Wake Up in the middle of the crowd. I saw Arcade Fire on 5/2/07 in Asheville, and I'll be posting a review either tomorrow or Monday. In case you were wondering and weren't convinced by the video below, they put on a great live show. Also will be reviewing Neon Bible soon as well.

#41 - Arcade Fire - Neon Bible & Wake Up

Aesop Rock -- New Album and Parking Lots..

Check out this interview on pitchfork with Aesop. Looks like there will be a new album in August. Look forward to hearing it and expect a review.

Page France - Hello, Dear Wind

"Swing, Like a Chariot at the Trumpet call when we’re all unsaved, Swing, Like a Wrecking ball, Like the Heart of God…” these are the opening lines to Page France’s album Hello, Dear Wind in which Michael Nau creates a childlike world in which Jesus’ return is a march through the streets with kazoos and tambourines, where it’s okay to get dirty or play in the junkyard, where innocence isn’t naiveté, but truly bliss.
‘Cause when our eyes close we’re the same… croons Nau on one of the slower, more pensive tracks where he juxtaposes simple fairytale lyrics with poignant vocals that drip with a certain melodic melancholy that brings comfort as well as splits opens your soul. And that’s what I really like about this record, which pairs the combination of childlike wonder, joy, and imagery with the implication and inference of very adult emotions and attitudes. This truly does reflect the Jesus they sing about, who was called the “man of sorrow,” but always spoke in ways that even a Child could understand evoking imagery of birds, foxes, plants and food and drink. It seems odd, yet appropriate that this band that rejects the moniker “Christian” is able to communicate this way in comparison to the thousands of “Christian” bands who truly miss the mark with an unrealistic gospel and a distant Lord.

Musically, Page France is an odd combination of Folk, Baroque Pop and the own sound, evoking the Decemberists, Neutral Milk Hotel, and even Sufjan Stevens at times. It’s core is Nau’s lyrics and simple acoustic guitar playing and vocals, backed skillfully and subtly by Whitney Mcgraw as well as a coterie of other musicians playing various instruments from organs, to the banjo, to the glockenspiel. At times it sounds like marching band music, or something you might hear at a carnival, and at other times it’s very tender and more traditionally folkish. Over all, Page France really does have their own sound and is a band worth checking out.


Coming Soon - "...and the Family Telephone" review!

Feist - The Reminder

The Reminder has been my formal introduction to Leslie Feist, and I have to say I am very pleased to meet her. I’d heard the name Feist here and there, on Pitchfork and what not, but I’d never actually listened to her or was interested in her music for that matter. That is, until I learned of her connection to another one of my favorite bands, Broken Social Scene. So, while rummaging though a record store in Greenwich Village for the new Joanna Newsom E.P., I came across her latest and figured, why not?

Impressions:
If there is one word I could use to describe Feist’s voice, it is familiar. But, it’s not in a “familiar” way, if you take my meaning. It’s like visiting a long lost relative and finding pictures of your grandparents or family friends. At any rate, as she flows from the moody and [obviously] apologetic “So Sorry,” to the neurotic “Sea Lion Woman,” through the almost alt-country “Past in Present” there’s just something comfortable and, well, savory about how she brings together different genres as well as different vocal and instrumental influences onto one record. This shows off Feist’s talents the most in my opinion. This record could have easily been a failure. Each song stands on it’s own, and could have been the “hit” on an album of similar, but mediocre tracks. But Feist has taken songs that are seemingly disjointed and unrelated musically and successfully weaved them into one musical tapestry.