My mind is open wide
September 2nd, 2010
This is the first year for as long as I can remember that I haven’t been to a festival. Not Glastonbury, nor V and despiet an offer of free tickets, not even to Latitude. An attempt at saving some money combined with the events of recent months conspired against me. To further compound my lack of festival activity, I didn’t even bother watching much of the TV coverage. Except that is, for the headline set by Arcade Fire at last weekend’s Reading Festival.
Now while I’m still a little unsure of The Suburbs as a whole album, there’s no denying their ability as a live band. It’s a rare thing that a TV broadcast can capture the energy and atmosphere of a live performance but I’d say on this occasion, it did. While the album feels overlong and a little padded in places, their 90 minute set was neither. The band oozed confidence, proving their worth as a headline act and delivering the kind of anthemic, celebrational, life affirming and communal experience that festival headline sets are supposed to provide. Below you can listen to how they opened and closed their set with ‘Ready To Start’ and ‘Wake Up’ respectively, while if you head over to the BBC, you can watch the highlights of their performance.
Arcade Fire – ready to start (live at Reading Festival 2010)
I love this album. Really wanted to catch them live this year but unfortunately they sold out and I am seeing 2 other shows in Nov.
Thanks for these, they sound amazing and I can feel the energy through the speakers. So awesome.
p.s. Hopefully the album will grow on you.
HI just wondering how you managed to get the audio’s? and where or how can i download them? thanks sophie