The Arcade Fire

Have you ever heard of the Arcade Fire?

This band comes from Montreal (Canada) and produces alternative rock. It was formed in 2000 by the couple Win Butler and Regine Chassagne. These love birds (they got married in 2003) composed some songs together and afterwards met the other members of the group which eventually gave birth to The Arcade Fire. This includes the married couple, Richard Parry, Tim Kingsbury, William Butler (Win’s brother), Sarah Neufeld and Jeremy Gara. The band was complete in 2003. Most of the artists can play several musical instruments (guitar, violin, drums, piano, cello, xylophone, accordion and harp) which makes the specificity of the group as they can switch instrument during the concerts allowing a great part of improvisation.
The result of this collaboration is their first album “Funeral” (it was so called because the group suffered from the loss of several relatives). The album came out in the USA in September 2004. It was a real success on the internet and some famous rock stars such as David Bowie , Beck, David Byrne and Bono didn’t hesitate to call it “a stroke of genius”. The leader of U2 even chose them for the first parts of his concerts.

Here's a video on which the band and David Bowie are playing together...

In February 2005, The Arcade fire came to Europe to promote their album, which was welcomed successfully.
What’s more, the group also won several prizes and was nominated for the Polaris Music Prize 2007.

You can see in this picture that the group also went to France at the Olympia

To conclude, we can say that the modesty of the group, their talents on scene and the closeness with the audience all contribute to the pride of the Canadians.

As far as we are concerned, we hardly knew anything about this band but we both agree to tell you that this is really good music… Of course, it’s up to you to discover a little bit more about them, why not check out our favourite song called “Neighborhood 1 (Tunnels)”! Enjoy…



Marie & Nolan