Der Weg zur Erlösung ist überraschend kurz und führt mitten durch eine touristische Kernzone Londons. An den Houses of Parliament und Westminster Abbey vorbei, stets mit Blick auf Big Ben geht es zur St. John's Church am Smith Square, einer kleinen Barockkirche, in der heute nicht mehr gebetet, sondern normalerweise klassische Musik aufgeführt wird. Die Stimmung ist an diesem außertourlichen Abend im Zeichen elektrisch verstärkter Rockmusik nichtsdestotrotz von festlicher Vorfreude bestimmt. Gleich werden Arcade Fire kommen und uns die Angst und den Schmerz nehmen. hofft das Auditorium.

  "Neon Bible" heißt das neue Album der kanadischen Band um den aus Texas zugewanderten Sänger und Songschreiber Win Butler und seine von haitianischen Eltern in Kanada großgezogene Partnerin Regine Chassagne, beides ehemalige Studenten der Religionswissenschaft. Die Platte rührt tief an existenzielle Konflikte und erzählt - vom verzweifelten Beginn mit "Black Mirror" bis zum Wimmern um Befreiung im abschließenden "My Body Is a Cage" - eine moderne Leidensgeschichte in elf tief ergreifenden Songs.

  "Desire or Fear?", fragt suggestiv ein kleines Heftchen, das auf den Sesseln ausgelegt wurde, und regt vor Beginn des Konzerts zum Grübeln an. Arcsde Fire steigen jedoch im Zeichen von Ekstase ein. Durch den Seiteneingang betreten sie den Raum und bringen im Mittelgang zwischen den vorderen und hinteren Sitzreihen mit Geige, Pauke, Wandergitarre und Megafon ein kleines Medley aus ihrem trotz seines Titels noch deutlich positiveren Debüt "Funeral" (2004). Das Eis bricht sofort: "Wake Up"! Binnen dreißig Sekunden sind die Denkfalten einem offenen Mund gewichen, und die Bestuhlung steht nur noch im Weg, der ganze Saal ist aufgesprungen. diese Band ist eine Macht.

  Den Löwenanteil ihres Sets machen natürlich die neuen Songs aus, die im letzten Jahr in Eigenregie aufgenommen wurden. Auch dafür trieb es Arcade Fire in ein ehemaliges Gotteshaus. more

NEON LIGHT IN THE DARK
by Sebastian Fasthuber, Falter 9/07 www.falter.at translated by Barbara Stanzl and Brett Fitzpatrick, Spiral Cat Translations

Music With their new album “Neon Bible” Arcade Fire have claimed their place as the best band in the world right now.


The path to redemption is surprisingly short and goes through one of the most touristy areas in London. Passing the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey with Big Ben constantly in view, we are heading to St. John’s Church on Smith Square. It’s a little baroque church in which no one prays anymore, in fact classical music is normally played there. This evening is not part of Arcade Fire’s actual tour and the mood despite the fact that it’s Rock music is non the merrier. The auditorium is hoping that Arcade Fire will come soon and take away the fear and the pain.
“Neon Bible” is the new album by the Texas born Singer and Songwriter Win Butler and his ex partner Regine Chassagne who was raised by Haitian parents in Canada. Both are former students of theology. The album stirs existential conflicts and tells a modern tale of woe in eleven deeply moving songs, from the desperate beginning of “Black Mirror” to the keening for freedom in the last song “My body is a cage”. “Desire or fear” a little booklet asks suggestively from its place on every chair and engages your thoughts from before the beginning of the concert. But Arcade Fire come on in a rage of ecstasy. They enter from the sides and play a medley from their more positive debut album “Funeral” (2004) on Violin, kettle drum, acoustic guitar and megaphone as they walk down the aisle. The ice breaks immediately. Within thirty seconds the furrowed brows have made way for open mouths and suddenly everyone’s chair is in the way as they jump up.
This Band has power. The lion’s share of the set is of course composed of the new songs, which they also recorded and produced in a former church, their studio in a church outside Montreal. In an interview the next day Win Butlers younger brother Will the Synthesizer, bass and guitar player says “It’s kind of a small church, we bought it from a hippie couple. It’s a better investment than renting a studio.” And although the building was used as a Presbyterian church for only a short time you can still feel its past “You can feel that a spirit is still present”
The comparison of a record by Arcade Fire with a church doesn’t seem so far fetched. The difference that raises this line-up above the sea of more or less good bands, lies not in the chords and melodies, but in their deeply rooted passion. After a long dry spell in Pop music, which at first was about Irony and distance and towards the end produced a lot of hollow pathos, deep feelings have been rehabilitated. Arcade Fires wall of sound and their euphoric singing can bring people back from the dead. In an age whose problems are less depression than the fact that a lot of people don’t feel anything at all, this might be the only way. Will Butler sings “I’m living in an age that calls darkness light” in “My body is a cage” and about an age in which fear keeps you moving, while your heart is beating slow.
“Neon Bible” tells of a dark world full of false prophets and empty promises of even faster, cheaper and more senseless consumerism. The narrator of “Windowsill” would like to tune out the noise which is confronting him and close his eyes, but in vain: “ Cause the tide is high and it’s raising still”. In the pulsating Springsteen homage “Antichrist Television Blues” which really draws you in when seen live, the devil wanders, pretending to be a good Christian and wants to see his daughter become a star at any price.
This raises the question of how Arcade Fire themselves deal with the devils of the Music industry and the media. Because even the best band in the world has to spread its message somehow and no, a page on the music portal “My Space” isn’t quite enough for that yet. That the interviews with the whole European press must be done in one night at the elegant River Plaza Hotel is a clear indication. This band really only does promotion when it absolutely has to. Which journalist gets to talk to which group member isn’t to do with the promoter, it depends on who the Musicians have happened to sit down with. The Falter got Regine Chassagne and Will Butler.
In the middle of the meandering conversation characterized by the Musicians understatement Will Butler says something remarkable in reply to a question from a Belgian Journalist, “The pressure on us comes from you. We just make music.” Disarmingly simple, but actually you can also see the supposedly very difficult second album the same way.
If musicians stick to their core business they can keep their passion. The expectations and demands which chew up so many colleagues have only a tangential, peripheral influence on them. The groups mastermind Will Butler is quoted by the English music paper the N.M.E, which is the central organ of the musical hype machine, in connection with this. “I hate the idea of marketing something to such an extreme that people are practically forced to like it. Some bands simply manipulate the people into buying their music. Ninety percent of the record industry works like that.” Arcade Fire is different, everything you need to know about them you can find out on their records and at their concerts.
They are really nice company but you would rather go for a drink with Butlers wife and his brother than interview them because most of the time they fend you off with friendly half evasive answers.

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