The Arcade Fire
Alexandra Palace, London, UK
Sunday 18th November, 2007

Support Bands: Wild Light, Clinic (also recorded)


Lineage:

GreenMachine GM-Pro Mics
-> GM Battery Box
-> iRiver H120 (Rockbox v061206)
-> SoundForge (v8.0d) (trim WAV, fade in/out)
-> CDWave (v1.95.1) (tracking)
-> TLH (v1.0.0.72)
-> FLAC (level 8)
-> Foobar2000 (v0.9.4.2) (tagging)

Source: Audience recording from left-hand side of the stage, directly in front of speaker stack
Taper: PABBY
Duration: 1h 29m 46s
Size: 442 MB


Track list:

01. Black Mirror
02. Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
03. No Cars Go
04. Haiti
05. Black Wave/Bad Vibrations
06. My Body is a Cage
07. soundboard problems
08. Neon Bible
09. State Trooper
10. Intervention
11. Headlights Look Like Diamonds
12. The Well & The Lighthouse
13. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
14. (Antichrist Television Blues)
15. video interlude
16. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
17. Rebellion (Lies)
18. encore break
19. Keep The Car Running
20. Wake Up


Notes:

SoundForge was used for trimming the start/end of the WAV, adding fade-in/out and normalisation. No equalisation was performed as I believe in letting people with better skills than me make any necessary adjustments.

This was the 2nd night of three at London's Alexandra Palace and the band were on fire. A fantastic setlist was accomompanied by a fantasic performance and I'd therefore chosen the correct night to get the best recording I could at this venue. I got in early and could have been on the 2nd or 3rd row dead centre, but I went and stood to the left of the stage in front of the speaker stack (on my own for the first act!). I recorded both support bands to get my levels right and just knew that if the crowd around me were better than the previous night's I would nail it. And, in my opinion, I did!

The set itself wasn't without problems though. The sound was pretty poor for the opening song Black Mirror and later on My Body is a Cage saw soundboard issues that led to no vocals from Win Butler and a 2 minute delay at the end of the song whilst things were sorted out. You could therefore say this is the karaoke version! Win also sang the opening lines of Pulp's "Common People" at the end of Tunnels, but soon forgot the words!

I also make a rare, but thankfully brief, appearance on the recording when Win announced that the next song would be Headlights Look Like Diamonds. I let out a wondererous "YYYEEESSS!" as I punched the air with delight. This was my 8th time seeing The Arcade Fire this year but the 1st time they had played this great song for me. Sorry!

Finally, I must add that this recording is dedicated to a very special person who has made my enjoyment of this great band even more fun this year. Spidey, you touch the heart of everyone you meet. We're all thinking of you.

Enjoy!


Links:

Official Band Website
http://www.arcadefire.com

Us Kids Know - the centre of the Arcade Fire universe
http://www.arcadefire.net

Show reviews and discussion
http://forums.arcadefire.net/viewtopic.php?id=13621