A bit of hand-wringing occurred on whether or not I’d indulge myself with a post centered around the band that gave Merge their highest Billboard placement; it almost seems redundant after the amount of media coverage the Arcade Fire has garnered since the 2004 pandemonium-spreading release of their debut album, Funeral. But again, it’s all about the memories my friends, and this release has a fair amount of them so here goes.Spring 2004: We start to hear wide-spread rumors and tales about this mystical band called the Arcade Fire who’ll come and save us from musical purgatory. Being both skeptical and having conflicting Friday night obligations, we pass when given an opportunity to see the band perform at Chicago’s Open End Gallery on June 18, 2004, a decision we’ll come to regret.
September 14, 2004: Merge releases the Arcade Fire’s debut album, Funeral, thinking that perhaps it’ll sell maybe 4,000 – 5,000 copies. At the same time, a review of the album appears on Pitchfork’s website containing terms such as “empowering positivity” and “anthemic momentum.” The album receives a 9.7 out of 10.0 and suddenly 40,000 – 50,000 copies are in demand. We luck out by scoring a copy that day from Evil Clown Records (R.I.P.).
Much excitement is had on the way home as we can’t quite get the CD in the player fast enough. With the disappointing thoughts that were the Star Wars prequels still fresh in our minds, we hold off on the subdued excitement we’re feeling as the album plays; aware of the fact that sometimes the mind tries to convince us that things really are a lot better than the crap that our ears are actually hearing. We’re relieved that Funeral does not fall prey to this although we’re still not sure we’d rate it as a near perfect album. We continue to listen.
November 25, 2004: By this point, Funeral has really kicked in and the album is in complete over-rotation in the CD player. We have tickets to go see the band perform at the Logan Square Auditorium. However, as the day of the show is on Thanksgiving, a day where we normally over-indulge with the spirits and such, the tickets go unused. Another decision we’ll regret as it’ll be almost 8 months later on July 24, 2005 before we finally get a chance to see Arcade Fire with about 15,000 of our closest friends. While the Arcade Fire blow us all away into sweet oblivion, a nasty sunburn is had as payment for indulging the temptation of taking my shirt off on a smoldering 100 + degree afternoon in Chicago’s Grant Park.
Shortly after, a show at the Riviera is announced for September 28, 2005. Due to our slacking nature, tickets are missed out on by a mile. We tell ourselves that another show will be announced. Obviously another show is never announced. Shane procures the services of some schmuck on Craigslist who’ll sell us two tickets for $60 apiece. Like two equally big schmucks, we pay the price after my repeated assurances that the show will be worth it. It is…even though I never was able to identify the other schmuck who threw ice cubes at the back of my head.
That being said, the songs from Funeral are taken to another level; in fact, to this day I can’t listen to Funeral without remembering the overwhelming sense of excitement that pulsated through the crowd in anticipation as well as that 1 + year long personal journey I went through with the band. Within that time frame, I fell out of a 2 year relationship, had a summer of nothing but fun before subsequently going out and falling back in love, which I still am to this day so alls well that ends well. Obviously Funeral wasn’t the cause for any of that but it still was great to have that record along for the ride.
Arcade Fire – “Wake Up” (mp3)
(from the Merge Records CD, Funeral, 2004)
P.S. Has anyone seen the trailer for “Where The Wild Things Are” that has this song playing over it? Freaking adorable…
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