What a dumb review. The lyrics weren't clear enough? What, did we get the folk music reviewer out at the Arcade Fire? And if she can't understand them, why is she so sure they the vocals have little substance?

Has she never been to a rock show before? Constant shouting, all this darn noise, man, these kids today! I shudder to think what she would have had to say about Fugazi back in the day...

Oh, I'd say it was album of the year. I agree with her that the sound at the 9:30 club could have been better -- the vocals were too low on many songs, and then they had feedback problems.

But yeah, allow me to say it right now, to whoever needs to hear it: you are not clever for disliking a popular band. I know you want to claim your hipster bona fides by being ahead of the curve, but see, we've already one-upped you by starting the anti-backlash backlash! And that's just the beginning. We've got stacks and stacks of file folders brimming with increasingly complex meta-positions on the Arcade Fire, ultimately culminating in an abstract examination of geographical ontology, in which we prove that Canadian musicians only exist in our minds, dude.

So don't step. You can't win. Go find a better way to spend your time.

1. "shudder to think"... "Fugazi". Well played.
2. Yes, album of the year.
3. I don't think the crappy sound was their fault so much as the 9:30 club.
4. http://www.purevolume.com/arcadefire/music - live radio performances of the three "new" songs. Very good quality.
5. While it's true most people are not clever for disliking a popular band, I am still clever for not liking the Strokes.

"The 9:30 club stage seemed too small for the eight musicians of the Arcade Fire"

Thank goodness she didn't make it to the P-Spree concert if eight people were too many for her. Wow, even my "I am too cool for this popular CD" friends listed Funeral in their top albums of the year. Perhaps this is part of the Post's ultra-hipster makeover.

Honestly, I found the Arcade Fire album really really boring. I mean, I can understand that other people are really into it, but it's just not my thing, and I think to say that it's objectively super awesome is just silly. And I seriously doubt the Post is trying to out-hipster the hipsters. If anything, the Post reviewer just didn't like them and didn't have a good time at the show. Why do you need the Post to validate your views anyway?

well, i don't need the post to validate my views, thanks. and i don't think the album is objectively awesome. i just thought it was weird that a) the post normally writes very positive reviews of concerts (not CDs) b) she hated the show. really, were you there? cause everyone i talked to, even people who don't like the album that much, agreed that they put on an amazing performance. of course, the post woman is entitled to her opinion, but i thought she went out of the way to be kind of highbrow about it.

Everyone's free to hate whatever. It's fine. I just think the indie discovery / enjoyment / "overrated!" / measured-reevaluation cycle is awfully predictable, and awfully boring.

The show was objectively awesome and the Post is objectively wrong and the poor taste of the Post offends me. So there!

indie discovery / enjoyment / "overrated!" / measured-reevaluation cycle

measured reevaluation = "I like their old stuff better"

i sound like a snot with her head up her butt here, but i really do think the show was objectively awesome. i mean, look at the same reviewer's piece on the bright eyes concert. she fucking loved him and all of the openers! are you honestly telling me that CONOR OBERST is better live than the arcade fire? she also has this to say about one of oberst's openers: "The quintet marched onstage stomping and clapping in rhythm, leading the audience in a cheerleader-like call-and-response. When the group burst into song, its jubilant pop melodies were literally toe-tapping: The band's percussion was provided by a tap-dancing Jamie Williams, adorned with silver wristbands that turned her bursts of energy into a sparkling blur." what, weird stage antics in this case aren't simply a "formula that constant movement and shouting in unison create a powerful show"?

she has also given clay aiken, rush, and gavin degraw very positive reviews.

almost all the reviews i have googled by this particular person (yes, i'm getting a little obsessive here) are fairly-to-over-the-top positive; that makes me feel that she went out of her way to write a negative review of the AF concert, and that's what i find annoying. if you really think a band sucks and you write about it, more power to you. if you write that something sucks because you want to appear a certain way or have a certain cachet, that does bother me.

of course, it is more than possible that she really didn't enjoy the show. in which case i apologize for my ranting. but not that much, because if you like a gavin degraw concert more than the arcade fire, then you are sorry enough for the both of us. booyah.

I revise my former bile. Anyone who did not have an amazing time at that show is objectively dead inside with a cold and twisted heart and deserves nothing but our utmost sympathy.

Honestly, why all the hate? It was without a doubt one of the best shows I've ever attended. I mean, there was a reason this show was sold out so far in advance. Even if she didn’t like their sound, how could you not acknowledge their musicianship?

Actually, to give the reviewer an ounce of credit, I can see how she could be somewhat lukewarm (which is what I took from it, not that she "hated it"). I've gotten ahold of a few live cuts from some of their recent shows, and the translation of their recorded material to a live setting (from a purely sonic level) was somewhat lacking. Subtle nuances lost, over the top shouting, blah blah blah. Another point to take into consideration, there is a big difference in translating your sound from smaller Black Cat venues to larger concert clubs like 9:30 (which since this being theire first tour of the scale, this would all be new to them.) So it is conceivable that certain songs/moments just won't work.

Combine inferior sounding songs with some cliche'd stage antics (drumming on non-percussion items? geen there done that (Blue Man, Stomp, Storm & Stress, etc.). walking out through the crowd during the last song? Godspeed YBE! has been doing that for years), doesn't make for a good mix.

Also, I can also see how the reviewer might have thought more of Bright Eyes than AF: Bright Eyes has been doing this for years, playng these kinds of venues. So I would bet that they/he would be able to pull it off better than AF due to the exp factor (Coner alone prolly has more shows under his belt in all of his various incarnations than all members of AF combined.)

Finally: who really cares what a reviewer thought. You went, you had the time of your life. Why should someone else's experience matter any?

[Take in mind this is all coming from someone who wasn't there and gave up his tickets to a buddy and the next day wish he hadn't :)]

There was this completely pure exuberance to the live show that cannot be explained if you weren't there. (And are you really surprised that amateur live recordings don't hold up to the experience of being there?) And you know, those of us that went, we've all been to tons of shows, and we're familiar with the stage antics. So it's not like we were wide-eyed 13 year-olds going "Woah, man!!! They climbed on things!! ROCK!" But some of us were commenting among ourselves afterwards about how it was odd that the same sort of antics that were kind of annoying in a recent Les Savy Fav show somehow came across as fresh and totally entertaining and excellent at AF. It has something to do with these guys being totally sincere and playing their hearts out, and not just going through the motions because reputation for "crazy stage antics" precedes them. It was just so refreshing to see a band that was not too cool and above it all, and just, seriously DOWN with rocking. I haven't seen that kind of joyful intensity in eons and I just do not understand how the reviewer missed it.

(p.s. I can also understand if the reviewer liked the Bright Eyes show, but seriously, we're talking apples and oranges with musical and performance styles and it really doesn't have anything to do with the venue.)

(p.p.s you're not really comparing AF with Stomp are you? Please say no?)

damn straight, susan. like you said, you are totally dead on the inside if you didn't get a large amount of enjoyment out of that show. and i'd like to note that the only people on this thread suggesting otherwise didn't even attend the concert. so step down, etc.

susan -
right, I wasn't there, nor am I shooting down whatever they did. my "understanding" of the reviewer is based on a few second-hand accounts from people I know who were at that DC show and few others, in Philly, Boston, & CMJ I believe. so I can totally believe that y'all had the time of your life and can also buy that someone else didn't get into it (doesn't mean the person is "completely" lifeless ;)

(and the clips I heard were ones on a DAT taken directly from the board. then again, could have been an off night)

catherine - rowr! wanna throw down?

no. you are wrong. dead inside, etc etc.
but really, i'm just bitter cause this girl who is dead inside, etc, gets to write indie rock shorts for the post and i don't.