What defines an instant classic? To me, it’s a full album that not only changes the game of music during a relatively boring time period, but enhances one’s life in an almost inexplicable way. It gives birth to a renewed vision of what music should and could be and awakes you from a bad music coma. We all know The Beatles’ Abbey Road and Michael Jackson’s Thriller are classics. But what about the last ten years?
It was the summer of 2004 and indie music was bubbling at the surface of the music industry. The deafening wave of bubble-gum pop had run its course but it was refusing to be put six feet under. I had just graduated from college after a long five years and felt dejected, as the only job I could get with my spiffy new liberal arts degree was a team lead at Urban Outfitters. Holy shit, my student advisors forgot to tell me all the hard work I put into college (ok, so it was a lot of hard partying too) would only place me in a pompous hipster-in-training role. Manual labor and dealing with teenaged shitheads included.
One night the following year as I was lying in bed being depressed over the state of my life I came across Arcade Fire’s video for “Rebellion (Lies)” from their album Funeral on MTV2’s Subterranean. The video shows the band marching through a neighborhood as pied pipers pounding on their drums. It was one of those moments when I realized I was experiencing an out of body musical experience. I instantly got all Single White Female on them and had to know who they were and what they were all about. At this point I had moved from hipster-in-training to corporate-jack-ass-in-training, and no power suit was going to get in my way. My obsessive love affair with Arcade Fire was already in full swing.
It was refreshing to see a band with so many members in it who played orchestral instruments à la Andrew Bird and Broken Social Scene. If I’d have known back in my band days that playing flute could have gotten me a gig in a band like this I probably wouldn’t have stuffed it in my high school locker where it got stolen.
“Haiti” is one of my favorite tracks on the album. It’s one of the few songs that showcases Régine Chassagne and her native French language. It’s a heartfelt and emotional song about Régine’s family’s past haunting experiences living in Haiti in the early 1980’s.
Cut to the fall of 2007. It was the year of Neon Bible, which is good but didn’t move me as much as Funeral did, and Arcade Fire was on tour. The concert was in one of St. Paul’s shittier venues, Roy Wilkins Auditorium, also the same venue as my damn high school graduation. It was a gloomy day and I was hung over as hell from a bender the night before. I was dedicated to stay sober the whole night, for fear I would projectile vomit at Win Butler’s feet. Alas, there was no alcohol needed because the show was what I imagine the resurrection of Jesus to be like. I’m no religious lady, but this was a damn near religious experience. The set design was intricate and the band was huge, which made for a full and robust orchestral sound. You could tell the band loved to perform live, especially with their performance of “Wake Up” and its epic sweeping chorus. There were drums flying in the air, and the members were taking their instruments to tribal school. One of the drummers even ran up to the second level balcony to hype the crowd even more by pounding on his portable drum.
I get ADD at most concerts so it takes a lot to hold my attention the whole time, especially when I’m sober. I can honestly say this was THE best concert I’ve ever been to in my life. Arcade Fire opened my eyes to a new wave in indie music at the time, and opening my eyes is not easy since I’m Asian. All kidding aside it gave me a renewed sense of hope in music, and that’s what makes it an instant classic for me.
-Felicia
