something's burning

arcade fire have been feted by bono and performed with davids byrne and bowie. they were described by coldplay’s chris martin as ‘the greatest band in the world’. jake kennedy now adds his voice to the wave of praise these canadians have fallen under.

It’s true that towards the end of 2005, just after wrapping up a tour of increasingly large venues to promote their debut, Funeral, that the seven-piece (and sometimes 10-piece) Arcade Fire had kind words floating round them like confetti. Any shrewd music fan would have been forgiven for dismissing them as merely part of an ongoing line of next big things, hyped by the press and built up until they no longer served a purpose for the periodicals. But things started to stick where previously they had slid off the wall. Funeral itself, so named because three band family members had died during its recording, was still sounding amazing some 18 months after it was recorded. U2 invited the band to support them on tour (which they declined, save for three Canadian dates, after which Bono declared “‘I never want another band to support us, ever”). Bowie and Byrne guested onstage and on TV with them. Lou Reed checked them out live. They swirled around the plughole of hyperbole and were, for a short while at least, in danger of getting sucked down.

The band first formed in 2003 around the core of Win Butler and Régine Chassagne (describing the instruments each member plays is impossible – some gigs see all those onstage play every single one). Although it is well worth remembering that among the other five band …

by Jake Kennedy
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