Live Review and Gallery: Arcade Fire at Metro

ilentertainer | August 7, 2017

Arcade Fire
Metro, Chicago
Saturday, August 5th, 2017

It was minutes into Arcade Fire’s Saturday night at Metro before the group launched into the title track from their new album, Everything Now. Though it was only the start of the group’s sold out set, one of a few high profile after-shows this past weekend at Metro, it was the first of many celebratory performances that would feel like an encore.

Over the course of just shy of two hours, the Montreal-based act delivered a steady stream of fan favorites from throughout their catalogue. A stretch of “Rebellion (Lies),” fueled by crooning harmonies, into “No Cars Go,” into “Keep the Car Running,” proved jubilant and felt personal, cementing the strength of the group’s earlier material. Elsewhere, “Ready to Start,” off 2010’s The Suburbs, provided a bit more tension and subtle menace, compared the rest of the evening’s set. And a performance of “Sprawl II,” with the house lights out and lit only by attendees’ phones, served as proof that multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Régine Chassagne is the the band’s secret weapon.

In between the night’s many fan favorite selections, some newer material slowed the set’s momentum, such as Everything Now’s “Good God Damn.” Yet overall, the evening’s set was filled with high energy performances that made effective use of a much smaller room than Arcade Fire normally visits. By the time the group hit the home stretch with “Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)” – from Everything Now standout “Creature Comfort” – and “Wake Up, off their 2004 debut Funeral, Saturday night’s set had offered up an evening of encores, in an intimate and exclusive setting.

-Review by Jaime Black, Gallery by Curt Baran