Arcade Fire have made one of the more difficult transitions in music look easy, from regular band to a stadium band! It’s always difficult to entertain people on this scale, at some level it’s no longer about the music, it’s about the spectacle, the event. There were certainly enough bells and whistles in their set to keep the large crowd entertained. The band arrived on stage in their massive papier mache heads to the sound of ‘The Streets have No Name’ by U2, before they promptly apologised and starting playing their own music!

The light show didn’t really work for the first hour of the set. It was long before dark, and despite the various mirrors and flood lights on display, they got a little bit lost in the light of the day. As it started to get dark, the light show became very impressive and combined with the projections onto the back wall of the stage, and the various large screens.

At the encore, the paiper mache heads were back with the Pope and Sinead O’Connor ripping up a picture of Miley Cyrus, while singing nothing compares to you! All part of the spectacle.

The set went through their whole career, and despite a dip towards the middle, they managed to keep the crowd bouncing. They finished strong with Neighborhood #3 (Power Out), Here Comes the Night Time complete with confetti cannons and finally a massive version of Wake Up. It was a very enjoyable set, and proved them more than capable of entertaining the massive crowd at Marlay.

Read our review of Pixies at Marlay park here.

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Set list below Images.

Set List:
Normal Person
Rebellion (Lies)
Joan of Arc
Rococo
Month of May
The Suburbs
The Suburbs (Continued)
Ready to Start
Intervention
(with (Antichrist Television Blues) as outro)
Crown of Love
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
We Exist
No Cars Go
Haïti
Reflektor
It’s Never Over (Oh Orpheus)
(Régine on B-stage)
Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
(‘Damian Taylor Remix’ intro)
Encore:
Afterlife
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
Here Comes the Night Time
Wake Up