After the immense Funeral, there was a lot of anticipation as to how the Arcade Fire’s sophomore album would fare out. They certainly didn’t let me down with Neon Bible. It’s a typically energetic, frenetic, rousing, theatrical record. You can’t help but get caught up in its anthemic songs, marching drums, lush string sections and swells of brass. They’ve been a breath of fresh air in the  last few years.

The amazing No Cars Go live in Paris:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The list so far:

#3 – “Neon Bible” – Arcade Fire
#4 – “Sound Of Silver” – LCD Soundsystem
#5 – “Marry Me” – St. Vincent

Click here to view the embedded video.

The gigs themselves were excellent, with the second being slightly better than the first. Mostly because we arrived there early and got pit passes but even more mostly because they improved the setlist a little – dropping Black Wave/Bad Vibrations and adding in both Windowsill and Headlights Look Like Diamonds.

Win heading into the crowd.

This was a terrible quality photo but I attempted to unterriblize it by playing around with some effects. Looks kind of interesting now, I think.

Although both gigs were thoroughly enjoyable, they couldn’t get near their Electric Picnic 2005 performance. That bordered on a spiritual experience!