I had the opportunity to catch Arcade Fire again this past Friday at the Starlight Theater here in Kansas City.  As if the chance to see Arcade Fire isn’t enough, LCD Soundsystem opened for them to really sweeten the deal.  I wasn’t expected to be as excited as I was after having just saw them at Austin City Limits about a month ago but I really was.

LCD Soundsystem took the stage to kick things off, and I immediately noticed that they are considerably better at night with their own lighting than when I saw them at ACL in the middle of the day.  It’s pretty amazing how big of a difference it makes.  I found myself liking them quite a bit and was impressed with how much energy they put into their songs even though I found most of the music to be a tad repetitive.

Different members of Arcade Fire came out to rock out with them throughout their set which was really cool, too. By the time they were finished with their energetic set everyone in the group I was with commented that they felt they got their money worth just with LCD Soundsystem alone. 

This was my fourth time seeing Arcade Fire live and third time just this year (ACL ‘05, the Chicago Theater this summer, and ACL ‘07), and as much as I was blown away by them before, I think think this time around might have been my favorite.  We were able to somehow score wristbands to get really close to the band (about ten people back) which may have had something to do with it.  They started off with “Black Mirror” and leaned heavily on material from their new album for the first half of the show.  I’ve found that, as much as I like their new album, the songs from their first are far superior live.  It’s hard to make a statement like that because that’s basically me saying something is really awesome compared to something that’s extra awesome.

I also think I would like to date either one of the violin players in the band.  They are obviously talented, but they really get into the music and are kind of cute, too.  I’d take either one, though.  I’m not picky.

There’s really not a whole lot more to add that I haven’t written about before on here other than that I decided that there are two bands out there right now that deserve the title of being the best live band on the planet right now.  One would be My Morning Jacket and the other is easily Arcade Fire.  By the end of the show, everyone that I went with said they thought the show could be the best they’ve ever seen.  I may have to agree with them.

On a negative note, I was pretty shocked that the venue wasn’t even close to being sold out.  When you see a show so good you (okay, I) tend to wish that everyone would be there to witness it.  Instead, the back 1/3 of the 8,000 seat theater remained pretty vacant through the remainder of the show.  Considering all of the hubbub around the Hannah Montana ticket scandal at the Sprint Center, it was disheartening to know that only half as many people showed up for such an amazing night of music as will pack the Sprint Center to see a kids pop singer from the Disney Channel. 

I guess it’s their loss, though.  I took of video of Arcade Fire playing “Rebellion (Lies)” and I think it does a somewhat decent job of showing how great the show was.