Arcade Fire and Neil Young Perform Helpless

Arcade Fire - Coachella 2011 - Light Balls!

Check out the balls of light that Arcade Fire provided to the audience.  

Arcade Fire plays Haiti

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The Grammy-winning band played an intimate show in earthquake-ravaged Port-au-Prince, and this is the only good evidence of it. 

Somewhere amidst the backdrop of rubble, cholera, and a tense presidential election — here at Haiti's colonial Hotel Oloffson, to be exact — emerged the band of the moment, in the country the world almost forgot. And seemingly out of nowhere: There was almost no promotion of Arcade Fire's 250-person set on Tuesday night, despite being one of the most rare and joyous occasions this ravaged city has seen since the earthquake hit fourteen months ago. It was mostly ex-pats, of course, but on Tuesday, none of the misery seemed to matter. Everyone just danced. 

Arcade Fire - Scene from the Suburb's Trailer

Arcade Fire appears to have made a short film with Spike Jone's featuring their music from The Suburbs.  This is the trailer with Win Butler's voiceover.

Arcade Fire Live on YouTube Tonight

Win Butler - Arcade Fire
photo by Mike Bouchard

Tonight on YouTube, Arcade Fire will be performing Live from Madison Square Gardens as part of their debut tour of their latest album The Suburbs. U2 managed to pull in 10 million viewers last year using the same service so it will be interesting to see how much more or less growth a one year older online music audience will have.  Since more people have come online and more people have high bandwidth internet connections, it is quite possible that Arcade Fire could smash U2's 10 million viewer record.

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Arcade Fire Video Compilation [HD]

Here's a nice little compilation of Arcade Fire's performance at the Ottawa Bluesfest 7-13-2010. It was one of the major highlights if this years festival.

Arcade Fire Lights Up Ottawa Bluesfest

Win Butler of Arcade Fire

Arcade Fire - 07-13-2010

Review and photos by Mike Bouchard

(more photos here)

It's 9pm, a half-hour before Arcade Fire is to take the stage before an anxious crowd at the 2010 Ottawa Bluesfest.  As I walked up to the entrance to the photo pit, I didn't know what to expect.  How many photographers were going to show up? 

Last saturday at the Flaming Lips, there was at least 20 or more photographers with big lenses fighting for space to point their cameras while explosions of confetti and giant balloons rained from the sky.  Before Wayne Coyne appeared in an inflatable ball, all of the photographers were pulled into a huddle by the Director of Communications to instruct us on how to behave when the giant ball comes rolling out off of the stage.  He gave everyone clear instructions on how to go with the flow in order to avoid both injury and ruining the video being captured.  The coordination worked like a charm.  All of the photographers moved together much like fish in the ocean and everyone got their shots.

Fast forward 3 nights to Arcade Fire.  The stage had 6 mics lined up in a row, with the tallest in the center, likely for Win Butler, the giant in the band.  His stature mirrors the band's status in the Indie music scene and the respect that he has among his peers after performing with both David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen.  Let's not forget their career boosting performances on David Letterman, Saturday Night Live, and their "Best Alternative Music Album" Grammy Awards for both of their albums "Funeral" and "Neon Bible".

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