Heaven Is Only In My Head

Arcade Fire @ United Palace, 5/7/2007
Black Mirror / No Cars Go / Laika / Haiti / Black Wave/Bad Vibrations / Neon Bible / Windowsill / The Well & The Lighthouse / Ocean Of Noise / Keep The Car Running / Antichrist Television Blues / Power Out / Rebellion (Lies) // Tunnels / Intervention

I’m not crazy about the United Palace. For one thing, the acoustics leave a lot to be desired, and the band was never loud enough. I realize that the volume thing may be an Arcade Fire issue — they have a bazillion instruments going all at once, and the sound people are clearly making an effort to balance it out so that the more delicate instruments can be heard with some detail. Sarah Neufeld may disagree with me on this, but I think that’s ultimately a bad idea. At least half of the reason why we go to see live shows is to hear the music really loud, so that we can FEEL the music vibrate through our bodies and enjoy a physical sensation that we can’t get from playing the records at home unless we happen to have extremely forgiving and/or passive neighbors. The mix and the acoustics of the room flattered slow, quiet numbers like “Neon Bible” and “Ocean of Noise,” but the majority of the set focused on the driving, enormous rock songs that are the band’s specialty, and something was lost.

Maybe it was because I was so far in the back? My other issue with the United Palace is that I resent the fact that I bought my tickets within 40 seconds of them being put on sale, and yet I was still stuck in the last row of the highest balcony, and the people who bought the tickets released on the day of show got to be in the front. How on earth is that fair to anyone? Shouldn’t the worst seats be reserved for the day-of-show tickets?

The venue is surprisingly large, relatively well managed, and ridiculously ornate, but it lacks the charm and exceptional sound quality of the fairly similar Landmark Loews Theatre in Jersey City. I’m more than a little ambivalent about the prospect of the place becoming the go-to venue for medium-large acts in NYC for the foreseeable future, but I suppose that it might be a nice thing for Columbia students or people in Washington Heights.

Arcade Fire “The Well & The Lighthouse” (Live @ Judson Memorial Church 2/17/2007) – Anyway, the Arcade Fire, right. They played a show. It was a good show — I think. They definitely played good songs, and it seemed like they did a pretty nice job of it. I was definitely really into that stretch in the middle from “The Well & The Lighthouse” on through “Antichrist Television Blues.” Like I said, I felt a bit removed from the performance. I’ve been much further away from the stage and felt more physically engaged, so I’m not going to blame my proximity. There was something kinda odd about my vantage point — I was peering down over them from an angle that somehow flattened everything so that it looked sorta like a puppet show. Everyone on the stage looked like tiny toy replicas of themselves. That skewed perspective benefited “The Well & The Lighthouse,” a song that sounds as though it should smell like a musty old book, and seems exceptionally well suited to being played in miniature on an fancy, old timey stage. Just as when I saw the band back in February, the slow, elegant fade out at the end of that number was the single loveliest moment of their show, though this time the audience started clapping a bit too early. (Click here to get the full Judson Memorial Church show from NPR and here to buy Arcade Fire music from Merge.)