Arcade Fire to get the weekend rolling – recorded at the 2024 BBK Festival in Bilbao, Spain on July 13, 2024 and preserved for posterity by RNE in Madrid.
Because there is always so much emphasis placed on new bands, new artists and new musical directions, being reminded there are bands that have been around for years, quietly blazing trails, picking up fans, staying reasonably out of the blizzard of hype puts it all into perspective.
Somebody said, a few years ago, that the good part about new technology and the Internet; streaming, YouTube and TikTok, is that we get to see everything that’s new and clamoring for our attention – them with the most organic hits wins.
But it’s also a lot of the problem with our current state of music – overload – a lot of anonymity, a certain homogenization of contemporary music – the sad fact that a lot of bands and artists are starting to sound the same. I chalk much of that up to residual affects of the Pandemic and the Lockdown we all had to endure – certainly contributed to stunting growth in many areas – creativity being one of them.
But somewhere along the way we’ve gotten more isolated from experiences and influences which used to inform and enlighten us – tending to withdraw and make the best use of our limited grasp on the outside world with limited and over-visited creative ground. We’re glued to our iPhones and iPads and pay little attention to the world around us – the world that supplies food for creativity by way of out-of-comfort-zone experiences and exploring out-of-comfort-zone points of view.
I bring this all up in the context of Arcade Fire because they’ve been doing it for a while – taking a rich cultural playing field and exploring it – and they’ve been doing it going on 25 years.
Despite pandemics and scandals-du-jour, Arcade Fire have maintained an open musical mind about things and the result has been a lasting positive effect – not only on the band musically, but on the audience in general.
Positive exchanges are always good things and Arcade Fire continues to do that nicely.
Only two dates in the U.S. so far (I suspect our current state of uncertainty and faux hysteria and since the band is Canadian makes visiting the U.S. an iffy thing), but dates in Mexico and in their native Canada are going on in April and May so far.
In the meantime, press play and visit Bilbao Spain for a bit and listen to what Arcade Fire have been up to.
