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lcd soundsystem / hec ed / 24 september 2007
(more photos [flickr ^[2]])

Held as part of “Dawg Days”, the Gossip, LCD Soundsystem, and Arcade Fire helped to welcome UW students [back] to campus two nights before the start of the academic year. For those of us not headed off to class on Wednesday but who nonetheless headed over to the edge of campus, it served as the unofficial kickoff to the cool evenings of autumn and the beginning of a jam-packed season of more shows that we know what to do with.

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al doyle & pat mahoney of lcd soundsystem // more [flickr ^[2]]

The kids, they start on time. When we arrived about an hour after the time printed on our tickets, the Gossip was long finished and LCD Soundsystem was already well into their set (I thought I heard them playing “Someone Great” while my bag was being checked). I don’t remember what I did a few days before my first undergraduate year began, but I’m certain that it wasn’t as momentous as humanist dance party under a giant glittering disco ball thrown by James Murphy followed immediately by a series triumph through despair, nostalgic, motivational speeches set to tempestous music by Arcade Fire.

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arcade fire // hec ed // 24 september 2007
(more photos [flickr ^[6]])

Although reactions were much grumpier from the stands (Hec Ed instituted a bracelet system, whereby the first 2,000 people were admitted to the floor and the rest were relegated to the nosebleeds), I couldn’t help thinking, as I always do when seeing the Arcade Fire, of Matthew Derbey’s “Not Enough Protection From the Song” [believer ^[7]] and finding it ever more impossible to believe that the band ever played anything other than amphitheaters, vast showrooms, and basketball arenas. I have seen them at least a half-dozen times, and the effect has yet to wear off. By the end I am always trying not to sing along too loudly and screaming “Lies” along with the band during “Rebellion”.

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arcade fire // more photos [flickr ^[6]]

This time, with the occasion of students marching off to a new year, meeting what are likely to be lifelong friends, pumping fists enthusiastically, dancing in the crowd as Win dives among them, Will scales the scaffolding, Richard tries to destroy anything in reach of his drumsticks, Regine furiously rotates between Hurdy Gurdy, accordion, and sining duties, in the background violins, saxophones, french horns swell, and the image of Jeremy Gara happily drumming projected against the giant curtain, the show and lyrics like “is it a dream? is it a lie? i think i’ll let you deceide”, “hold your mistakes up”, “sleep is giving in”, and seem all the more momentous. Definitely more memorable than whatever they say at convocation.