From the Vault: My History with Arcade Fire

The producers of Coachella announced the complete lineup for the All Points West Music & Arts Festival. I'm not going to go. The lineup isn't compelling enough to make me go to Jersey. Considering that Coachella 2007 was one of the best music experience I've had so far -well worth strategically missing some classes and handing in final papers early. I want my next fest to be a good one too.

It was there I saw Arcade Fire for the first time. I was near the back of the crowd of tens of thousands of people, a noticeable number of which were incredibly into the music; the atmosphere definitely added to the experience.

The next time I saw them was much, much more intimate, considering I was taking photos at the front, and got stuck there after Win ushered everybody to rush to the stage. (There was a Village Voice photographer who gave me a "what is this madness?!" look. Oddly, he was the only other person with a photo pass.) The results were these:

For more of the set, click here.

The last time I saw Arcade Fire was the massive Randall's Island show, where I was a production assistant. (Another Village Voice coincidence: a Columbia friend, Isabelle, also on Spectator, was shooting this!) The only photo I took was from a camera phone:

The double bass is the only recognizable instrument here. I just noticed for the first time that you can read "Icahn Stadium" in the background.

So my history with Arcade Fire went from being in a crowd of 10,000's, to being in a photo pit at a venue holding 3,000, to watching side stage in front of 10,000's.

Anyway, there will be some story telling here, probably somehow related to current music news, while I wait for my Loose Record sonic nighttime photo excursions!