After much speculation as to which songs The Arcade Fire would play on last night's SNL, the band chose to launch with "Intervention" and then later close out the show with U.K. single "Keep The Car Running." Both songs, particularly the latter, were performed well although audience reception didn't seem as audacious as it should have been, especially after Win smashed his guitar at the end of Intervention. Regardless, if you didn't catch the show on TV, the glorious YouTube has come to the rescue:
Keep The Car Running:
SNL-writer Jorm dancing backstage to The Arcade Fire:
20 comments:
clearly the greatest live band in the world.
Wow...great performances last night.
And Jorma's dance moves are some of my favorites...I'm glad they're keeping that tradition alive.
why did they have to smash the guitar ><
poor guitar
I love how Richard Reed Parry is the only guy laughing in the Jorm clip.
It looks like Win wasn't happy with the way the song went
You can kinda see it looks like hes cussing at the end
perhaps the audience's response was the way it was because they were expecting a good band and what they got was a pretentious, self-important indie rock fusion of U2 and Big Country, with little or no hooks. I don't get what you people like about this stuff. It's dull, uninteresting and....did I say dull?
Trust me when I say that in five years Arcade Fire will be what The Gin Blossoms are to this generation. One hit wonders relegated to the $1 bin.
Argue all you want. I'm right.
what is up with win smashing his guitar. it looks so forced and stupid. he did it when I saw them in central park summerstage a few years back. LAME
you were expecting an 'audacious' crowd response? huh? it's 2007 and they're in a television studio... smashing your guitar should only mute the crowd's response....
when pete townshend smashed the guitar, it was shocking and spontaneous. this looked forced and almost rehearsed. btw, what happened to the youtube link? SNL pitch a fit or something? -obd
why dose NBC have a hissy fit everytime they get free publicity for one of their shows. if they just put a copyright tag on it, no one could proffit from it and they would gain free publicity for doing nooootthinnnnggg
they pulled this with Lazy sunday as well...let it be on youtube you greedey bastards!
what is that instrument the girl is playing on the right?
i agree with anon - they're dull. and what's with the amish look? this band is overrated to say the least. there's so many better bands out there and everyone's raving about some pretentious indie band smashing acoustic guitars.
#1: To anyone deeming The Arcade Fire as an unoriginal, untalented, pretentious, dull, uninspiring, uninteresting, or overrated band: I feel sorry for you, your clearly shattered and lacking taste in music, and anyone that has to listen to your unintelligible dribblings.
#2: I believe the instrument Regine is playing is a Hurdy Gurdy.
#3: I Guess I'm Floating FUCKING ROCKS.
Keep up the great work guys, I read IGIF every day!
- Jon
Sorry jon, but I can't take anyone seriously who tries to tell someone about their "unintelligible dribblings" when they can't even figure out the difference between "your" and "you're". The band got the response they deserved, they're a boring overrated band with a singer who can't sing. I know it's really cool to pretend that all the indie kids are so much smarter and know what bands are really cool and ahead of their time, and you're a dumbass if you don't "get it" like they do...but sometimes they make mistakes. Latching on to Arcade Fire as the second coming is one of them. TV on the Radio is another. Do I need to keep going?
hey joflow, why don't you read what I wrote again, try to replace my correct use of "your" with "you're" and see if the sentence makes sense. Go back to gradeschool, punk.
If you can't see that AF have produced two of the finest albums of the decade you should probably stop listening to music altogether, as it's clear you're completely out of touch.
He broke the guitar because he was pissed off that the strings started breaking off during the set. Look at the 3:20 mark, and you'll see the strings hanging off.
Arcade Fire is great. Unfortunately, everyone who has commented so far is an anti-consumerist.
just to make things more clear for people like joflow:
my #1 is meant to state: "...I feel sorry for you, [I feel sorry for] your clearly shattered and lacking taste in music, and [I feel sorry for] anyone that has to listen to your unintelligible dribblings."
jon it's clear that you reread what you wrote and saw how it looked like an incorrect use of grammar, so I'll take that last comment as your acknowledgment of your own poor writing. It takes a big man to admit his mistakes.
If you think that AF has produced two of the finest albums in the last decade, you clearly don't listen to much music. As I said, their singer can't sing, and their lyrics are devoid of honest emotion and true meaning. We could go 'round and 'round about this, but in the end you're going to keep thinking they're the greatest band EVAR and I'm going to keep knowing that they suck balls. We'll just have to find a way to keep on living that way, I guess.
And J. O'Manachain, you lost me on the anti-consumerist remark buddy.
i love you guys
I liked the Arcade Fire on SNL performance wise, but their songwriting is a somwehat lacking this time around(am I crazy or does some of it have a heavy Springsteen vibe?) That's why they need a bunch of superfluous instrumentation - to hide average songs played by a rock band lacking in instrumental style.
Indie rock bands have been falling into the habit of using extra sounds in this way, whether it be pipe organs, guitar feedback, or electonic blips and bleeps, for too long. These things should be used to enhance songs or build songs, not to obscure them. As far as looking for originality in sound itself, I'm interested in hearing the sound of instrumentalists with a personal and identifiable style much more than a guy who sounds like every other guitar player on the planet and covers that up with a bunch of noise.
I loved Funeral - it just had something intangible to the feeling it evoked that hit me at gut level - but this new album, despite the band sounding looser and more confident thanks to a new and better drummer, struck me as being pretty weak.
Most of it sounded like a band doing a hollow imitation of themselves at their peak, which usually takes a half dozen albums (PJHarvey,Beck, many classic rock acts, BBKing for the last 35 years).
I'll give it a few more listens though. I want to like it and hope I'll change my mind.
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