Arcade Fire sparkle in their Glastonbury headline set

“Who are Arcade Fire?”

A few years back, post-Grammy win, that was the joke. Taking home the biggest prize in music Stateside, half the audience had never heard of alternative music’s great white hope. Fast forward to 2014 and it’s an altogether different question; do Arcade Fire know who they are?

Well, yes, bluntly. They’re the less than dark horses in the eternal debate of just who the biggest band in the world is. They’re occasionally a force of nature. They’re disco. They’re not disco. Occasionally they’re the Reflektors, occasionally they’re not. But amongst all these things, they’re a band built for nights like these.

If opener ‘Reflektor’ really does “need something more”, then the Pyramid Stage is where it will find it. This could well be the biggest proving ground of all for Arcade Fire. They’ve already basked Worthy Farm in a huge fireworks display just to start their set. Now they’re headfirst into their latest album’s standout track. This is no demure start.

A detour via ‘Flashbulb Eyes’ and we’re already into the greatest hits. ‘Power Out’ into ‘Rebellion (Lies)’ may be a one-two with a pair of stone cold classics, but ‘Joan of Arc’ more than holds its own against them. ‘The Suburbs’ might be a slowing of pace, but then ‘Ready to Start’ picks things straight up again like a runaway steam train.

“We’re called the Arcade Fire, we’re from Montreal,’ Win announces mid-set. The humility is endearing, but nobody needs telling by now. That momentum was built up from long before they even reached Glastonbury. They’ve effectively taken the Pyramid Stage on the road for the past few months on their ‘Reflektour’, all aimed like an diamond tipped arrow at tonight’s bullseye. Like a prize fighter, they’re trained and ready.

Whether that’s ready for a blast of ‘Afterlife’ or a troupe of sequinned transgender and cross-dressing dancers for ‘We Exist’; a romp through ‘Sprawl II’ or a thumping ‘No Cars Go’, it doesn’t really matter. They’ve tamed Glastonbury.

“In a lifetime of pretty much impossible things that have happened to our band, this has to be the highlight,” Win exclaims, as the band launch into a closing ‘Wake Up’. Arcade Fire had this in them all along. There’ll be no backlash now.

Arcade Fire played:

Reflektor
Flashbulb Eyes
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
Rebellion (Lies)
Joan of Arc
The Suburbs
Ready To Start
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
We Exist
My Body Is A Cage
Keep The Car Running
No Cars Go
Haïti
Afterlife
It’s Never Over (Oh Orpheus)
Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)

Encore:
Normal Person
Here Comes the Night Time
Wake Up

Photo: REX/James McCauley

Tags: Arcade Fire, News, Festivals