The Arcade Fire descend on nyc

last night was the first of 5 shows at judson memorial church...

the inside of the church is huge...the walls are this pale blue and the stained glass windows are beautiful..there was a balcony at the way back where i assume the choir sings from....there is also a huge pipe organ up there that i really wish could be used during the show...here is the setlist:

Keep the Car Running
Antichrist Television Blues!
Black Mirror
Poupee De Cire
No Cars Go
Haiti
Black Wave
My Body is a Cage
Neon Bible
Power Out
Rebellion
Intervention
The Well and the Lighthouse

before i do my review...the sentence for ATB was not written on the setlist, but win did say it aloud...it was:

[b]Father's don't grow up to manage their daughters[/b]

there was a barrier in the front, about a foot from the stage...it was just a bicycle rack, not the regular black barriers...there were a lot of photographers and i spoke to one of them who said that most photographers would not be there for the rest of the 4 shows since that would be repetitive...so check wire image and pitchfork for professional pics today..

we saw fab moretti from the strokes hanging in the VIP balcony section before the show...

during the show there were a lot of really painful silences between the songs...luckily some of these awkward silences were broken up by little convos with audience members who screamed things out...one guy said 'why a church' and win responded 'well aren't we all lapsed catholics?'...he was really all smiles and it was shocking...

i was silly and yelled out during one of the awkward silences 'the new album is fucking incredible'...and richard smiled at me and quickly replied into the mic "you know it's not out yet'...and i quickly said 'bootlegs' to which he replied 'that's still stealing' (he was still smiling) and then i said 'not from you, plus i pre ordered from insound'...it was so weird and i felt so bad for saying anything...but he seemed to not be angry...

this show was the first of 5 so i think the band was really just warming up...the part of the show that totally blew me away was when will was ripping up pieces of paper into the mic during 'neon bible'...i love little things like that...also will was out of control during one of the later songs pounding a drum with his shoes...

you can see the rest of my pictures here

i also took a video of 'windowsill' and it's on youtube here