The Arcade Fire (Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA, 26 June 2005)

After a crazy night in Philadelphia, I am now in Los Angeles hoping to garner enough energy to enjoy Arcade Fire and, possibly, David Byrne. Of course, nothing prepared me for what I was about to witness tonight. This is, easily, the best Hollywood Bowl show I have seen thus far. Yes, even better than Radiohead front row at the Hollywood Bowl.

I arrived at 11:45am in Los Angeles from my stop over in Atlanta. I flew AirTran, f/k/a ValuJet. It's not a bad airline actually. Service was great, no food but what do you expect. I just wish I wasn't sitting in the window. I held it in for 3 hours and upon landing in L.A., and dodging two parapalegics and a geriatric to get to the bathroom, I got my second wind.

I'll spare you the trip to the Vietnamese sandwich shop where pork is apparently like mana from heaven, how Jason bought a 12 pack of Becks for our show drinking pleasure for only $4 thanks to a mix up at Ralph's in Arcadia and how Hollywood Blvd. is the worst possible route one can take to go to the Bowl.

So, after walking from the parking lot at Hollywood and Highland (N.B.: validate so you can save $8 on parking), lugging our $4 Becks, and being constantly ignored by Lloyd (yeah, we saw you Lloyd, you wouldn't even say hi despite us saying hi to you!) we finally made it to the venue. The will call line was SO LONG but we were there a little after 7pm and thought there was no way Arcade Fire is playing anytime soon. Well, we were gravely mistaken. At approximately 7:45pm, I heard the beginning guitars to "Laika." Jason and I were shocked, and pissed, at missing our favourite live Arcade Fire song. This called for desparate measures. I had the bright idea of trying to bribe my way to the front. I offered a guy $10 but he flat out declined, and so did the others. What's wrong with you people! You and your morals. Geez!

So, we got our tickets and ran like hell to our seats. Thus far, we missed "Wake Up," "Laika," "No Cars Go," "Haiti," and "I'm Sleeping in a Submarine." I was so angry for my mix up (N.B.: Use TicketFast and the extra $2.50 for next Hollywood Bowl event) but was quickly distracted by the view of the bowl, the lighting on the stage, and Regine's wonderful voice for "In the Backseat." The acoustics for the Hollywood Bowl is incomparable to any venue I've been in before, and our seats in Sec. K1, Row 7 was just right. Once the closing strings were played for this song, it just eminated throughout the venue. Regine's voice and the awesome sound sent shivers down my spine. Literally.

Win seemed very into the crowd and was just dumbfounded by the audience's reaction to each and every song. He thanked the crowd a lot, and even cracked a joke. Will just graduated from university (applause) and Win said that this was his first day on the job. Win further emphasized that "getting a college degree is very important, I wouldn't know what I'd be doing right now with my religious studies degree. Stay in school." I guess you have to be there to truly appreciate this deadpan remark, but it was hilarious!

Then "Crown of Love" played and again, shivers went down my spine. I cannot emphasize enough how awesome the acoustics are and this is a venue I see the Arcade Fire playing again. Once "Tunnels" came on, people were on their feet. Probably because they thought that "Tunnels" was the last song, and people gave the band a standing ovation upon finishing that song. But they kept on going, much to my pleasure. "Power Out" was next and after that blistering song, with Wil killing the living shit out of the cymbal, the crowd gave the band another standing ovation. At this point, they thought it was over, but I knew better. Little did these Arcade Fire novices know that "Tunnels" segways into "Rebellion (Lies)" and at this point there was dancing everywhere. From the rich folks in the garden boxes to the huge crowd of people in the back of sections P and M, people were filling the aisles with dancing, hopping, and just plain maniacal screaming. I went ape shit in my little section, taking it all in.

That was the final song, and afterwards Win unplugged his guitar and walked around the pool circle area. As he went around, the rest of the band did their march towards stage left. As the lights flickered dim, Tim's silhouette was the last one to be seen.

This is the seventh time I've seen Arcade Fire (S.F. (x4), L.A. (x2) and Coachella) and every single show was as memorable as the one before. This show added a whole new dimension to their greatness. More people are now figuring out how great this band is. So much so that Tower Records nearly sold out of copies of Funeral in their little kiosk.

Beer Rating: 1.5 Beers