Uplifting…

Montreal’s Arcade Fire landed into Toronto for its final North American date with their second uplifting night at the Air Canada Centre (ACC) along with Toronto’s Broken Social Scene (BSS).

In reality not a double-bill, but a “triple-bill” with Feist herself accompanying her BSS bandmates for this event.

Broken Social Scene (BSS) opened the night with breakthrough album “You Forgot It in People” with “Cause = Time”.

Followed by the introduction of Feist, the anthemic “7/4 (Shoreline)” gave the audience reason to rush into the arena to celebrate one of Canada’s most collaborative music ensembles.

BSS followed with “Halfway Home”; “Fire Eye’d Boy”; “Stay Happy”; self-titled track from the latest album, “Hug of Thunder”. Finishing with Gord Downie tribute “Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day)”, and “It’s All Gonna Break”.

There has been some criticism of Arcade Fire’s LP/Tour “Everything Now” launch marketing campaign (especially polarizing in this age of over hypersensitive social media landscape), with reports of low turnout in some North American cities.

Quite the opposite in Toronto, as the second night turnout filled the ACC from bottom to the top rafters — a telling sign that Toronto is an elite city for live entertainment.

Arcade Fire was up next by prepping the audience during intermission with video vignettes and “Everything Now” commercials.

With a boxing ring stage centered in the middle of the ACC, the members of Arcade Fire were introduced (cheekily) as gladiatorial combatants.

Setting off the audience with the lead single from Arcade Fire’s latest album, “Everything Now“, the crowd were ready to party on a  Saturday night.

Followed by “Signs of Life” and debut Funeral album gem, “Rebellion (Lies)”.

Selections from Arcade Fire’s +12-year discography melded seamlessly with “Here Comes the Night Time”, “Haiti”, “No Cars Go”, “Electric Blue”, “Put Your Money on Me”, and second album title track “Neon Bible”.

Third album The Suburbs focused on favorites, “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)”, “The Suburbs”, “The Suburbs (Continued)” and “Ready to Start“.

“Reflektor” and “Afterlife” had both Win Butler and Régine Chassagne among the audience while closing with latest album entries “Infinite Content”, “Creature Comfort” and finisher “Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)“.

For the encore, Win Butler settled into the crowd with “We Don’t Deserve Love”, and finished with “Wake Up” accompanied by all the members of Broken Social Scene chanting the chorus with the united audience.

Uplifting & Exhilarating…

ARCADE FIRE SETLIST:

• Everything Now
• Signs of Life
• Rebellion (Lies)
• Here Comes the Night Time
• Haiti (with Haitian dancers)
• No Cars Go
• Electric Blue
• Put Your Money on Me
• Neon Bible
• Intervention
• Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
• The Suburbs
• The Suburbs (Continued)
• Ready to Start
• Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
• Reflektor (Regine in crowd)
• Afterlife         
• Infinite Content
• Creature Comfort
• Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)  

ENCORE:

• We Don’t Deserve Love (Win Butler in crowd)
• Everything Now (Continued)
• Wake Up (with Broken Social Scene)

 

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE SETLIST (Hug of Thunder Tour):

• Cause = Time
• 7/4 (Shoreline)
• Halfway Home
• Fire Eye’d Boy
• Stay Happy
• Hug of Thunder
• Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day)
• It’s All Gonna Break