Arcade Fire - 2011-09-01 - Edinburgh Castle, UK

As soon as this show was announced at the start of the year, it was obvious it ticked all the boxes for turning into something special. It was due to be their final show in the UK for some time and it was a new venue for the band. Given these circumstances, a fair number of Arcade Fire friends acquired tickets and everyone started making their own arrangements for a late-summer pilgrimage to what is undoubtedly the jewel in the Scottish crown.

Come the day of the show and everyone made their way up to the castle in order to get a first sight of the venue. What was unexpected was that the venue was completely open down one side, as a walkway had been created to allow tourists to come and go from the castle itself. And being the band that they are, the Arcade Fire obligingly posed for photos with fans as they went about their sound check. They even performed the rare track "Cars and Telephones" at the request of a fan. Unfortunately, I missed most of this, but I will get to record a sound check one day!

Come show time, our small group ended up to the right of centre of the stage, close to the right-hand speaker stack - not the ideal spot for recording, but it was a great spot to watch this amazing band from. I knew I'd still have a half-decent chance of capturing something decent due to the proximity of the speakers and hoped the crowd around me were there to watch rather than sing. And so it was, thankfully.

From a personal point of view, the show itself was excellent, yet it seemed to be missing something to take it to the next level - a rare song or a guest appearance or a cover version. Just something different. What we got were the same songs as the previous night in Manchester, albeit with a different running order. Wake Up was still mid-set though and I hope the band soon realise the error of their ways with this one.

After the show, some people commented about the lack of enthusiasm from the Edinburgh crowd, especially in comparison to previous shows by the band in Scotland. From my point of view though, it was perfect - little audience noise and no jostling for position during the bouncier songs. The Arcade Fire are a very visual band and there is always something happening on stage to grab your attention. I'm sure that is why many in the audience just stand and stare as they perform - people are in awe of what they are witnessing. I know that's how I feel anyway.

As for the recording, it's actually pretty good! I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

I've already described where I was stood, so the right-hand channel has therefore got a very slight gain with regards to the music, with the left-hand channel picking up slightly more crowd noise. It's hardly noticeable though and actually adds a good stereo mix to the sound; hence I decided to leave the balance as it is.

Enjoy! :-)

Arcade Fire - 2011-09-01 - Edinburgh Castle - FLAC
633MB RAR archive, FLAC format

Arcade Fire - 2011-09-01 - Edinburgh Castle - MP3
175MB RAR archive, variable bit rate MP3s (min. 245 kbps)

Setlist:

01. Ready To Start
02. Keep The Car Running
03. No Cars Go
04. Haiti
05. Rococo
06. Speaking In Tongues
07. Intervention
08. Suburban War
09. Wake Up
10. Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
11. The Suburbs
12. Month of May
13. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
14. We Used To Wait
15. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
16. _encore break_
17. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
18. Rebellion (Lies)

(Photo courtesy of musicscramble.co.uk)

(Download links updated on 27th January, 2013)

Arcade Fire - 2011-08-31 - MEN Arena, Manchester, UK

This was the band's penultimate UK date before they disappeared from these shores, probably until the release of their next album, whenever that may be. I hadn't had the chance to see them since the end of 2010 and, given certain events that happened around that time, I'd hardly listened to them over the previous few months. I just couldn't raise my usual excitement for seeing the band, even though I was still looking forward to the show.

How wrong was I??!!

The turnover between the support band (Noah & The Whale, whom I also recorded) leaving the stage and Arcade Fire's intro starting up was only 30 minutes, but in that time I realised I was well and truly back in the grips of what I honestly consider to be the best band in the world today.

I decided, just minutes before they came on stage, that I would try and get the best recording I could of the show, so I moved back from my 4th row, right of stage spot and positioned myself in what I consider to be the "sweet spot" for recording at the MEN Arena - dead centre of the stage, 10 yards/metres back from the front row of fans.

I'd not watched the Arcade Fire from a similar location since my first time seeing them back in 2007 at Manchester Apollo (first night), at what was, and still is, the worst show of theirs that I've ever attended (dire sound and an awful audience). However, I was not to be disappointed this time. Ok, I had a few occasional talkers around me (who doesn't in the middle of a crowd at a rock show?), but the quality of the sound shines through on the recording. In fact, this was the 13th time I've recorded the band and I reckon it's my best attempt yet.

Now onto the show itself. As far as the Arcade fire are concerned, I find it a tad difficult to rate their shows in comparison to previous ones, pure and simply because of their amazing consistency. Some shows may have had better setlists than others (which is a very personal thing anyway and always causes opinionated discussion!), but invariably they have all had something that made them special. This show did not have anything special in its setlist, but the ordering of the songs was surprisingly good and the band themselves were as stellar as any other time that I've seen them.

That first show of mine which I mentioned earlier, it had no Wake Up in its setlist. Unbelievable, I know! Every other time I've seen them, this inspirational song has always been the show closer, yet here we had it 10th song on the bill, mid-show. This was a real surprise, and I'm not totally convinced that it worked, but it was still good to experience it all the same. We also had the relatively new song Speaking in Tongues - it's always good to hear a song live for the first time. And any show that has a run of songs that goes Wake Up/Laika/Tunnels/We Used to Wait/Power Out is bound to rate highly on the Richter scale.

And then there was the encore. Somebody on the sound desk turned the volume up a couple of notches and the band launched in to an ear-bleeding, monumental version of Month of May. I can honestly say that I have never heard them so loud. In fact, the young kid stood to my left had his hands over his ears! When Rebellion (Lies) got under way, I could hardly hear anything other than the drums and bass - they either left the volume turned up or my hearing was temporarily fucked! Fortunately, the recording wasn't affected as I'd set my little box of tricks to auto-adjust to volume changes.

I'm going to thoroughly enjoy listening to this recording on repeat. I hope you do too.

Enjoy!  :-)

Arcade Fire - 2011-08-31 - MEN Arena - FLAC
605MB RAR archive, FLAC format

Arcade Fire - 2011-08-31 - MEN Arena - MP3
171MB RAR archive, variable bit rate MP3s (min. 245 kbps)

Setlist:

01. Ready To Start
02. Keep The Car Running
03. Haiti
04. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
05. No Cars Go
06. Rococo
07. Speaking In Tongues
08. Intervention
09. Suburban War
10. Wake Up
11. Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
12. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
13. We Used to Wait
14. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
15. _encore break_
16. Month of May
17. Rebellion (Lies)
18. The Suburbs

(Photo courtesy of the ever-wonderful Shirlaine Forrest Photography)

(Download links updated on 27th January, 2013)