Arcade classics
The Arcade Fire are on the verge of superstardom.Lew Guthrie III checks out their credentials and reviews new album The Neon Bible
March 2007 and The Arcade Fire are coming in like lambs and will leave like lions. As I write this feature they are playing small churches in England. By the time you read it, they will be selling tickets for arenas across the world.
It’s rare we get to see a band in a state of metamorphosis, but there are precedents. More than 25 years ago, flushed with the success of Boy and October, U2 supported The Police in Gateshead. Punk had washed away bloated stadium rock and as the 80s clicked in the search was on for a new music.
Those of us who witnessed the young Irish band that day in the North East were as much amazed at the loyalty and enthusiasm of their legion of fans as we were by their show.
Within months War had been released and it all fell in to place as U2 blossomed in to butterflies and became the biggest band on the planet.
Is something similar happening here? And if it is are The Arcade Fire about to become butterflies or something altogether more disturbing – great black moths flitting and flapping around contemporary music’s burning light? Are they more Bunnymen thanU2?
The Arcade Fire are from Canada and they arrived in some style when they produced the album of 2005 in Funeral. So is the follow up a worthy step forward for the band?
First off, if ever a band could be compared to whisky it’s The Arcade Fire. They are a big aged sherried whisky of a band, a complex concoction of flavours that reveal themselves slowly.
This is no easy ride; this is a.....
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By Lew Guthrie III
Section : Whisky and Music
Page number : 31
