Arcade Fire and Me -- silhouettes against rainbow stripes, adapted from the WE Tour 2022 poster

Arcade Fire
and Me

Six shows across fourteen years. A Klangbiographie by Christopher Dias.

Hero image adapted from the WE Tour 2022 poster

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I first came across Arcade Fire when I saw them perform Wake Up on television. This strange collection of what seemed like the music club kids from school, looking like art school dropouts, the total antithesis to the slick bands we normally see on TV. Geeky, authentic, with live instruments and the lead singer's haunting voice. Then the chaos of the end of Wake Up when the song changes completely, like a New Orleans funeral. It pulled me in almost against my will.

I bought the CD of Funeral in secret. It ended up on my iPod as a guilty pleasure, something I was not quite ready to admit to publicly. But I started buying copies for the people I thought would get it. A copy for my brother Steve. A copy for my friend Sadiq.

Then came The Suburbs, and I decided it was time to come out as an Arcade Fire fan. It became a go-to album for car journeys and Saturday mornings. No more hiding it.

Where it started

The performance that started everything. Art school dropouts, live instruments, the haunting voice, and then the chaos at the end.

Show One

Hyde Park

London · 30 June 2011 · The Suburbs Tour

I went to Hyde Park with Sadiq, who I had bought a copy of Funeral for years earlier. He pretended he was too cool to know the songs. I screamed them at the top of my lungs.

We both sang Wake Up in the fading sun of the day, arm in arm. A high point in a now faded relationship.

The Suburbs had won the Grammy for Album of the Year five months earlier. This was the London headline date of that summer's European run. Win Butler opened with Ready to Start and told the crowd not to wake the rich people up. Speaking in Tongues got its live debut. Sixty thousand people in the park.

Hyde Park 2011 concert poster by Burlesque of North America

Artwork by Wes Winship / Burlesque of North America. 4-colour screen print on French paper, 19×25″, signed and numbered edition of 150. Printed by Ben LaFond.

The Show

Also on the bill: Mumford & Sons, Beirut, The Vaccines, Owen Pallett. Crowd: ~60,000.

  1. Ready to Start
  2. Wake Up
  3. No Cars Go
  4. Haïti
  5. Intervention
  6. Rococo
  7. Speaking in Tongues (live debut)
  8. Crown of Love
  9. The Suburbs
  10. The Suburbs (Continued)
  11. Month of May
  12. Rebellion (Lies)
  13. Neighborhood #2 (Laïka)
  14. We Used to Wait
  15. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)

Encore

  1. Keep the Car Running
  2. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
  3. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)

Closest recording: MEN Arena, Manchester, 31 August 2011 -- audience recording from centre stage, ten metres back, FLAC. Same UK tour leg, near-identical setlist. Taped by PABBY on Church Audio cardioid mics.

Also: Reading Festival, 28 August 2010 -- broadcast source from the previous summer.

Listen -- MEN Arena, Manchester, 31 August 2011

Audience recording. Church Audio cardioid mics, centre stage, ten metres back. Taped by PABBY.

Show Two

Earls Court

London · 6 June 2014 · Reflektor Tour

I went with Crystal, my wife, my brother Stephen, and my sister Andrea. It was the Friday night. Earls Court was about to close permanently, and this was one of the last major concerts held there before demolition.

Myself and Andrea really enjoyed the show. Crystal and Stephen wanted to leave early. It was dark and crowded and more akin to a nightclub than a concert, and Crystal suffers from anxiety in places like that. We ended up in a restaurant in Earls Court.

The last show at the venue before demolition, and we left before the encore. That is how it goes sometimes.

Earls Court 2014 Reflektor Tour poster by Burlesque of North America

Artwork by Wes Winship / Burlesque of North America. 3-colour screen print on 80lb chrome-finish reflective mirror paper, 19×25″, signed and numbered edition of 100. Printed by Sarah Schatz. European Reflektor Tour poster #6.

The Show

Support: 2manydjs (DJ Set). Special guest: Ian McCulloch (Echo & the Bunnymen), who joined for a cover of The Cutter. The Saturday show was filmed for the official Live at Earls Court DVD, directed by Kahlil Joseph.

  1. Reflektor (instrumental outro tape)
  2. Reflektor
  3. Flashbulb Eyes
  4. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
  5. Rebellion (Lies)
  6. Joan of Arc
  7. Rococo
  8. The Suburbs
  9. The Suburbs (Continued)
  10. Ready to Start
  11. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
  12. The Cutter (Echo & the Bunnymen cover, with Ian McCulloch)
  13. Neighborhood #2 (Laïka)
  14. No Cars Go
  15. Haïti
  16. We Exist
  17. Afterlife (with My Body Is a Cage acapella intro)
  18. It's Never Over (Hey Orpheus) (Régine on B-Stage)
  19. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)

Encore

  1. Bitter Sweet Symphony (The Verve, fake band on B-Stage)
  2. Normal Person
  3. Here Comes the Night Time
  4. Wake Up

Closest recording: Earls Court, 7 June 2014 -- FM capture -- the Saturday night, one day after my Friday. Same venue, same tour run. FM broadcast, 9.5/10, 118 minutes across 27 tracks.

Listen -- Earls Court, 7 June 2014 (Saturday night FM capture)

FM broadcast source. 9.5/10 quality. 118 minutes. The Saturday show, one day after my Friday.

Show Three

Genting Arena

Birmingham · 15 April 2018 · Infinite Content Tour

Crystal and I took the train up and stayed the night at the Genting Hotel, an easy walk over to the venue.

An amazing night. Both of us shouting the songs at the top of our lungs. A boxing ring in the middle of the venue where the band performed on a revolving stage with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. This was the one where it all came together. The right venue, the right company, no anxiety, no early exits. Just a great show and a great night.

Everything Now tour poster

Everything Now / Infinite Content North American Tour 2017 promotional poster. No individual artist credited; no venue-specific limited edition was produced for the Birmingham date. Image sourced from Posterflip.

The Show

With the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The full Infinite Content production: boxing ring intro, revolving stage, deep catalogue cuts mixed into the Everything Now material. The show ran longer than the track count suggests; several songs had extended arrangements and segues.

  1. A Fifth of Beethoven (from tape)
  2. Everything Now (Continued) (instrumental with boxing intro, from tape)
  3. Everything Now
  4. Rebellion (Lies)
  5. Here Comes the Night Time
  6. No Cars Go
  7. Electric Blue
  8. Put Your Money on Me
  9. Neon Bible
  10. Rococo
  11. Normal Person
  12. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
  13. The Suburbs
  14. The Suburbs (Continued)
  15. Ready to Start
  16. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
  17. Reflektor
  18. Afterlife
  19. Creature Comfort
  20. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)

Encore

  1. We Don't Deserve Love
  2. Everything Now (Continued) (with Preservation Hall Jazz Band)
  3. Wake Up (with Preservation Hall Jazz Band)
  4. Wake Up Chorus (with Preservation Hall Jazz Band)

This is the actual show: Genting Arena, Birmingham, 15 April 2018 -- audience recording on matched DPA4060 mics, 16-bit/44.1kHz, mastered to FLAC. 124 minutes, 21 tracks. The taper notes that track 12 features a man shouting at him for telling him to shut up.

Listen -- the actual show, 15 April 2018

Audience recording. Matched DPA4060 mics, 16-bit/44.1kHz, FLAC. 124 minutes. Track 12: a man shouting at the taper for telling him to shut up.

Show Four

Utilita Arena

Birmingham · 2 September 2022 · WE Tour

Crystal and I went back to Birmingham. Four years since the Genting Arena, and in between the world had stopped. The pandemic had shut everything down, and for a long time live music felt like something that belonged to a previous life. Six days later the Queen would be dead. This was the first week of September 2022, one of those hinge moments where everything was about to change, though we did not know it yet.

Arcade Fire were in their own crisis. The allegations against Win Butler had broken days before the UK dates. Feist, the support act, pulled out of the tour. We heard fans in the queue talking about friends who had returned their tickets. Crystal had her doubts too. The atmosphere was strange, a mixture of defiance and uncertainty.

We went anyway. Not because we were indifferent to what had been said, but because we are loyal to the music and to the idea that a band is more than one person. If the musicians on that stage chose to stay together and keep playing, that said something. Humans are human. People contain contradictions. We wanted to be there, and to let the music be what it has always been.

And it was a good night. Rebellion opened the show from a centre stage in the middle of the arena before they moved through the crowd to the main stage. The new songs from WE hit something about what we had all been through. The pandemic, the uncertainty, the feeling that the ground had shifted and none of us quite knew where we stood. That went for us in the crowd and for the band on the stage. Nobody in that room was sure of the future. Sprawl II was the high point, Régine's voice filling the room in a way that reminded you this band has always been bigger than any one headline. They closed with Wake Up, as they always do, the whole crowd singing it back. A Bitter Sweet Symphony cover in the encore felt oddly fitting, a song about a band that did not survive.

Crystal and I had needed that night. To be out, to be together, to let our hair down in the age of anxiety. Birmingham twice now, and both times it delivered.

WE Tour 2022 all dates poster

WE Tour 2022 -- all dates, 18×24″. Source: Nasty Little Man. No venue-specific limited edition was produced for the Birmingham date.

The Show

Support: Feist (who withdrew from the tour shortly after this date). The WE album performed alongside catalogue highlights.

  1. Rebellion (Lies)
  2. Age of Anxiety I
  3. Ready to Start
  4. We Used to Wait
  5. Half Light I
  6. Afterlife
  7. Reflektor
  8. Creature Comfort
  9. Age of Anxiety II (Rabbit Hole)
  10. The Lightning I
  11. The Lightning II
  12. Keep the Car Running
  13. Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)
  14. The Suburbs
  15. The Suburbs (Continued)
  16. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
  17. Everything Now

Encore

  1. End of the Empire I–III
  2. End of the Empire IV (Sagittarius A*)
  3. Bitter Sweet Symphony (The Verve cover)
  4. Wake Up

Closest recording: Wembley Arena, London, 8 September 2022 -- audience recording, same tour leg, six days later. Near-identical setlist. The Queen died that day; the taper's notes reference the announcement.

Listen -- Wembley Arena, London, 8 September 2022

Audience recording. Same WE Tour leg, six days after Birmingham. The Queen died that afternoon; this was the last show before the tour paused.

Show Five

O2 Academy Brixton

London · 4 July 2024 · Funeral 20th Anniversary

I went with my daughter Darcey, in her first year at university. We met my old client Mr. Friday at the venue, who was working as a doorman.

Funeral played front to back for the twentieth anniversary. The string quartet arrangement of Vampire / Forest Fire as an opener was genuinely unusual. Second Coming Part II got its first public performance, acoustic, just Win and Régine. Bowie's Sound and Vision as the walk-on tape and a Beatles Day in the Life as the interval were nice touches.

The album I once hid on my iPod, now being played front to back twenty years later, with my daughter standing next to me. Full circle.

Arcade Fire Funeral 20th Anniversary invitation -- Save the Date, Black Tie Optional

Official Arcade Fire announcement artwork, February 2024. Posted on the band's Instagram. Save the date. Black tie optional.

The Show

Running time: approximately 1 hour 55 minutes (8:50 PM to 10:45 PM). Funeral played in full, then a second set of catalogue highlights.

Set 1 -- Funeral in full

  1. Sound and Vision (David Bowie cover, from tape)
  2. Vampire / Forest Fire (instrumental, string quartet)
  3. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
  4. Neighborhood #2 (Laïka)
  5. Une année sans lumière
  6. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
  7. Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)
  8. Crown of Love
  9. Wake Up
  10. Haïti
  11. Rebellion (Lies)
  12. In the Backseat
  13. A Day in the Life (The Beatles cover, from tape)

Set 2

  1. Second Coming Part II (first public performance; acoustic; Win and Régine only)
  2. My Body Is a Cage
  3. Keep the Car Running
  4. No Cars Go
  5. Ready to Start
  6. The Suburbs
  7. The Suburbs (Continued)
  8. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
  9. Everything Now
  10. Pressure Drop (The Clash cover, from tape)

Closest recording: Bilbao BBK Live Festival, July 2024 -- nine days later, same European summer run, same setlist structure. Soundboard/webcast video on Archive.org, 10/10 quality.

Worth checking again in late 2026. The Brixton show was high-profile and both American and European tapers attended.

Watch -- Bilbao BBK Live Festival, July 2024 (nine days after Brixton)

Same European summer run, same Funeral anniversary setlist structure. Soundboard/webcast source. The closest recording to the Brixton show.

Show Six

Royal Albert Hall

London · 14 May 2025 · Don't Think About Pink Elephant Tour

Darcey again. This time we had our tickets upgraded by the band and got to sit near the side of the stage with an amazing, intimate view. Plus free candy floss.

Pink Elephant had been out for five days. A one-off show in one of the best rooms in London. Régine playing the Royal Albert Hall organ on Rococo, Intervention, My Body Is a Cage, and Wake Up is something that could only happen in that building. Neon Bible got a tour debut. Twenty-six songs across two and a half hours.

From a guilty secret on an iPod to sitting beside the stage at the Royal Albert Hall with my daughter. Fourteen years of shows. Six venues. The people change, the songs do not.

Arcade Fire Don't Think About Pink Elephant Tour -- Royal Albert Hall, London

Don't Think About Pink Elephant Tour artwork, Royal Albert Hall, London. Official tour poster also available (sold out) from the Arcade Fire store.

The Show

Running time: approximately 2 hours 35 minutes (8:10 PM to 10:45 PM). Pink Elephant played in full, then a second set of catalogue deep cuts. The Royal Albert Hall organ featured on four songs.

Set 1 -- Pink Elephant in full

  1. Pink Elephant
  2. Open Your Heart or Die Trying
  3. Pink Elephant
  4. Year of the Snake
  5. Circle of Trust
  6. Alien Nation
  7. Beyond Salvation
  8. Ride or Die
  9. I Love Her Shadow
  10. She Cries Diamond Rain
  11. Stuck in My Head

Set 2

  1. Age of Anxiety II (Rabbit Hole)
  2. Creature Comfort
  3. Rococo (Régine on Royal Albert Hall organ)
  4. Intervention (Régine on Royal Albert Hall organ)
  5. My Body Is a Cage (Régine on Royal Albert Hall organ)
  6. Afterlife
  7. Black Mirror
  8. Neon Bible (tour debut)
  9. The Suburbs
  10. The Suburbs (Continued)
  11. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
  12. Everything Now
  13. End of the Empire I–III
  14. End of the Empire IV (Sagittarius A*)
  15. Wake Up (Régine on Royal Albert Hall organ)

Closest recording: Montreal, 30 April 2025 -- same tour, two weeks earlier. Full show on YouTube in three parts:

Worth checking Archive.org for the actual Royal Albert Hall recording in late 2025.

Watch -- Montreal, 30 April 2025 (same tour, two weeks earlier)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Audio Documentation

Show Best Recording Source Quality
Hyde Park 2011 MEN Arena Manchester Archive.org -- audience, FLAC Strong
Earls Court 2014 Earls Court, 7 Jun 2014 Archive.org -- FM capture 9.5/10
Birmingham 2018 Genting Arena, 15 Apr 2018 Archive.org -- audience, FLAC Direct recording
Birmingham 2022 Wembley Arena, 8 Sep 2022 Archive.org -- audience Same tour leg
Brixton 2024 Bilbao BBK Live Archive.org -- video 10/10
Royal Albert Hall 2025 Montreal, 30 Apr 2025 YouTube -- same tour Video

Bonus Posters

From the wider collection. One for each era, 2010 to 2025.

The Suburbs Europe 2010 poster by Burlesque of North America

Artwork by Wes Winship / Burlesque of North America. The Suburbs, Europe 2010. 4-colour screen print on French paper, 19×25″, signed and numbered edition of 150.

The Suburbs European Tour 2011 poster by Mike Davis / Burlesque of North America

Artwork by Mike Davis / Burlesque of North America. Summer Tour of Europe 2011. Screen print, 19×25″, signed and numbered edition of 150. Same tour as the Hyde Park and Manchester shows.

Reflektor Tour 2014 poster by Rob Jones / Silent Giants

Artwork by Rob Jones / Silent Giants. Reflektor Tour 2014, Sunshine edition. Two-piece silk screen, 18×24″, hand signed and numbered. First edition.

Pink Elephant Tour 2025 official poster from the Arcade Fire store

Official tour poster from the Arcade Fire store. Don't Think About Pink Elephant, 2025. 18×24″ on 100% card stock. Sold out.