Us Kids Know, No Cars Go.

The show last night was absolutely incredible!

In all seriousness though, how could it not be?

The simplicity of Spoon's opening performance was a stark contrast to the complexity that is Arcade Fire in all of its glory. However, as superficially different as the two sounds are, together back to back they were quite complimentary toward the other.

If I had to give a criticism on Arcade Fire's performance (as in, hypothetically, if I happened to be held hostage with a gun to my head as the potential shooter threatens to end my life if I absolutely cannot produce a negative thought on the experience whatsoever), I would say that the abundance of new material was a bit of a damper.

Don't get me wrong, I love it when artists play new material live, but my reasoning surrounding this particular case is twofold. 

In the first place, the band's newest album titled The Suburbs was only released little over a week ago, which is conducive to the fact that the vast majority of the audience had had little time to give it a skim, let alone a strong listen. The difference between audience feedback to the new material in contrast to that in response to the older tracks was undeniable.

The second reason as to why I think that the performance of the newer material MAY have hindered the experience as a whole is because The Suburbs, in general, does not have near the powerful sound as the band's former two albums. That is not to say that the CD is disappointing by any stretch of the imagination, simply different. Kudos to the band for trying something new with their music! Live, however, there was quite a distinction between the general pace of the show in terms of new versus old music. The band I think was aware of this phenomenon as lead vocalist Win Butler more than once would say a quip or two in between songs that was along the lines of "Ok let's pick it back up" or "Show me what you can do" following a new song. The band would then immediately proceed into a classic hit like "No Cars Go," "Rebellion," or "Power Out" in order to lift up once again the audience's energy.

As a whole, Regine Chassagne stole the show. Eliot and I were in awe of her natural musicianship. Not only was her voice well above par, she rocked out (and rocked out well, mind you) about five different instruments including the drums and an accordion. Her emotional stage rendition of "Haiti" was also one of my favorites of the entire night.

Moving along, tonight Eliot and I have received free tickets to see The Black Keys in Nashville. We are both very excited. This will actually be our second time seeing them; it is also our second time seeing them for free.

We're quite lucky sometimes!