|
|
Riding the Magic Stick to The Arcade Fire and Gold Chains (Detroit; 11.18.04)Nov 19 '04 Write an essay on this topic.
Popular Products in Music
The Bottom Line it's okay to go to concerts by yourself. i did. i saw the arcade fire. it was great!
(Said in a very slow, sarcastic tone) Poor, poor Eric. Nobody will ever go to any little concerts with him. Last night none of poor, poor Eric's friends would go see The Arcade Fire/Gold Chains at the Magic Stick (baby if I could hit once, I could hit twice) for a measly $8. What would poor, poor Eric do? Would he be a big boy and go by himself and have a good time? Or would he be a poor, sad, little boy and stay in his room? He went! This is his testament to the power of music, cute opening acts, and that people really do know who The Arcade Fire is. Cool. - - - - - If you know anything about driving around in Detroit, you know that one minute you are passing a beautiful, built-up, nicely lit street block and the second minute (to be nice) you're looking for the next beautiful, built-up, nicely lit street block. This is especially true around Woodward and the Fisher Freeway where the line between the affluent and destitute is as thin and sad as Paris Hilton. In short, this isn't the type of place you should really be traveling alone. But, but...it's The Aracade Fire and it's eight freakin' bucks! I could do this. And I did. After taking one moon and two suns to get parallel parked, I headed down the block that the Majestic Theater Center sits on, to the Magic Stick. "Errr...doors are at 8, dude." Ooops. Yeah, I guess in all my excitement and defiance of everyone who wouldn't go with me, I had gotten there at 7:30. So, down to the Majestic Cafe it is. I suppose that this would be a good time to tell you that Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat beer is pretty darn good. Finally, a fruity beer that actually has the authentic taste of the fruit it's trying to convey while still being beer. I had a couple of these, a couple smokes, then I started talking to people. Talked to the bartender about him quitting smoking. Talked to another guy about the show and politics. Then I started drinking Miller High Life. That's when I knew I was ready. Let's burn this b*tch down. - - - - - OPENING ACT: GOLD CHAINS IN A SENTENCE: Dance music falling on deaf ears. I hate to bash an act that's really working their butts off to entertain. So I won't. But I could. Ohhhhh, could I. Californian Topher Lafata is the Gold Chains mastermind. He's a little bald dude with a penchant for a drum machine and a guitar. Those two things don't go together that well, especially live, and it showed Thursday night. Along with his partner-in-crime, Sue Cie, the duo showed a lot of energy, but their cliche, laughable hooks and extreme noise would leave the crowd ambivalent for a 40 minute set. Truth be told, I had no idea who Gold Chains was before I got to the concert. I was suspecting that they'd at least be a band. Who would think that a dance act would open for an orchestral rock/pop band? The crowd looked bored and confused. Lafata and Sue were putting their all behind their vocals, coming out into the crowd, doing whatever they could to get us animated. But it was just a grand miscalculation by whoever planned this event. In the end, it just sort of sucked for everyone involved. Moments to be remembered (and hopefully, mercifully forgotten) included Lafata guitar soloing over one of his songs, until he just went into straight noise. I don't know if he was trying to wake us up, but it was piercing and by the time The Arcade Fire came out, I could barely hear out of my right ear. Another was seeing Sue come out into the crowd and just start going right up to people, rapping vigorously in front of them. Also, at one point, Lafata just fell on the ground with his mic. We were all wondering why. It was just weird. All of these antics wreaked of a desperation to get our attention. In the meantime, I was in my normal social butterfly role, talking to two U of M students. The topic was, of course, how fantastic The Arcade Fire is and how we wished Gold Chains would get the hell off the stage. Later, I would sort of feel bad for that. - - - - - MAIN ACT: THE ARCADE FIRE IN A SENTENCE: Holding the crowd in the palm of their hands, deservedly so. Win Butler, lead singer of the Montreal rock/pop group, The Arcade Fire, is like the well-adjusted, well-intentioned, long-lost twin of Curt Cobain. Live, he's an animal, beating that long, sweaty mane of his all over the place, jamming away at his guitar, making you truly feel his music. He's a great lead on record; live, he's unforgettable. But he's such a wholesome boy. He's got a beautiful wife, Regine Chassagne, who is the other main vocalist (and multi-instrumentalist) of the band and his songs are awesome without having to tap into amorality for shock-effect. You just have to love this guy. Besides Win, the audience was treated by six other multi-instrumentalists who epitomized what it meant to be jack-of-all-trades. There was the accordion, the up-right bowed bass, and a bunch of other stuff that I didn't even recognize as instruments. The amazing thing was, everyone in the band (save the glorious female violinist) played everything. One minute Mrs. Chassagne was on the keyboard; next the drums; next the accordion. Same for the rest of them. To say that The Arcade Fire is "so and so on guitar", "so and so on drums", etc., is totally misleading and flat-out false. Dressed in thrift-store prom outfits, The Arcade Fire were humble showpersons who didn't need to act cocky to have us loving them. The audience was impressed enough when these seven people could make the ambitious "Funeral" sound just like it does on record, with an added energy. As they quickly shuffled instruments between every song, you couldn't help but smirk at how unusual this all was that it actually worked; that you could make an album, let alone do a show, this way. After kicking off with the rowdy "Neighborhood #2 (Laika)" to breathe some life back into The Magic Stick, The Arcade Fire proceeded through "Funeral" and some unreleased tracks, mixing it all into a cohesive and immaculately planned show. "Une Annee Sans Lumiere" strummed us into a little sway before the rock-out finale had bodies crashing all over the place in a great synergy of sound and movement. And I can't deny it, I was trying to sing the French part. "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" had the whole crowd straight dancing and smiling as Win's intensity began to really grow with lines of trying to find some light for his family and neighborhood. If one thing can be said though, The Arcade Fire was indeed lights out. So maybe they were being subliminally cocky. Ahhh, who cares? ~ ~ ~ AN ASIDE: Where the author needs more beer and indulges in long dialogue with a slightly frustrated, yet hopeful artist. After the first four or five songs, I hit the bar for another beer. I sat on a stool and waited for help and, strangely enough, I'm sitting right next to Sue Cie from Gold Chains. Being the highly-sociable, nice guy I am, I just said what any polite person would say. "Hey, great job tonight!" I'm such an a*ss. Well, who would think that this would lead to a 30 minute conversation about all sorts of stuff? First, we're talking about her trips to places like Australia and the Netherlands and tours with The Streets and Dizzie Rascal. Next, we're venting our frustration with politics and the fact we did not really want to vote for John Kerry. Later, we're just talking about our ambitions; where we really want to take our lives. We were both surely buzzed, but it was quite the "speak now or you'll never get a word in" type of conversation. And hey, I could still hear and see The Arcade Fire performing favorites such as "Rebellion (Lies)" and "Crown of Love", so it was all good. Not to mention that Sue is a gorgeous young (she's 30; who am I calling young?) female with a very engaging smile and look. After a beer and four smokes (two of which were bummed to her as she was in need of some menthol), she had to hit the merch table and make that money. I needed to experience the power of fira for another twenty minutes. But hey, what can you say? That was a pretty strange and cool moment in time. ~ ~ ~ I rejoined the party just in time for the last couple of songs. The false-finale was, ironically, the song that kicks off "Funeral", "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)". That was one that really brought the crowd together, all while sounding even better live than recorded. How could something that goes, "and if the snow buries my neighborhood...then I'll dig a tunnel from my window to your's", not make you want to put your arm around your neighbor? The Arcade Fire would then leave the stage, to the traditional foot-stomping, calling for an encore. Maybe they were scared that we wouldn't care 15 second later, but they really should have been enjoying the chants a little longer before they granted our request for more. But whatever. Back out they came for another two songs. The first encore joint was something I had never heard and was, quite frankly, a little lacking. But maybe this was just to set us up for the lovely and rightful finale, "In the Backseat". This is the "Funeral" closer, and leaves you on a contemplative - if not a little sad - note. Regine is probably a better pure vocalist than Win and it showed as she belted out a performance that would have the best modern-day soul artists looking over their shoulders. And again, what had to make you crack a smile was that, in between her verses of lost loved ones was that she picked up some odd-looking, long, plastic instrument and played to her heart's content. The Arcade Fire definitely left it all on the playing field and Regine's closing effort pretty much summed it all up. - - - - - If you haven't grabbed it yet, The Arcade Fire's "Funeral" is easily one of the year's best albums. It's an album that uses instruments like a carpenter uses tools; whatever will make a perfect construction. Amazingly, this works out great in the group's live show. See them. Buy them. Love them. As I left, I stopped by the merch table, shared a hug with Sue, and wished her the best of luck. Even if it's easy to dehumanize acts such as Gold Chains and just say they "suck", it's important we realize that they're living, breathing people with dreams and ambitions, just like the rest of us. And hey, I got to see a wonderful live performance by The Arcade Fire on top of all of the cool conversation I had with neat people all through the night. I guess poor, poor Eric didn't end up so poor after all. * * * * * * * * * * For more information about Cryptic Cradle and his reviews, please click here. * * * * * * * * * * Written by Cryptic Cradle for Spike-A-Delic Productions.  |
| Read all comments (18)|Write your own comment |
|
Ads by Google
|
by starcollector
by kiwifella
by PacManY2J
![Jersey Boys [Original Broadway Cast Recording] by Original Broadway Cast Reviews](http://di2.shopping.com/images/pi/95/a4/8a/2006752046-100x100-0-0.jpg?p=p6.0de30dd81541a6d97aac&a=2&c=1&l=8071320&t=120602202834&r=1)
