Arcade Fire play first in-person gig since Covid-19 pandemic began
Win Butler and Régine Chassagne played at the Galaverse Crypto Party
By April Curtin
Arcade Fire have performed their first show since the coronavirus pandemic began.
The Canadian indie band took to the stage at the Zarkana Theater in Las Vegas on Saturday, December 11.
It was their first time playing to an in-person audience in around 22 months. According to Stereogum, the band’s last in-person concert came when they headlined New Orleans’ Mahalia Jackson Theater in February 2020.
But over the weekend, frontman Win Butler and multi-instrumentalist Régine Chassagne made a return to the stage – performing at an event hosted by Gala Games’ called the ‘Galaverse Crypto Party’.
Maroon 5, Billy Idol, Kings Of Leon, Snoop Dogg, Alice Cooper, and Steve Aoki were amongst others who performed.
The rest of the Arcade Fire members were reportedly not performing at the show. Instead, it was the husband-wife duo along with one other musician on stage.
Introducing ‘My Body Is A Cage’ from the band’s 2007 album ‘Neon Bible’, Butler said: “You know that dream that you have where you’re, like, in Las Vegas and your band’s not there and you’re about to sing, and then you turn around and there’s a bunch of people eating dinner? Yeah, it’s a fucked up dream.”
Footage from the event shows the pair also performing ‘Everything Now’ from their latest album with the same name (2017).
Arcade Fire may not have been performing over the last couple of years, but according to Butler, they were still keeping busy.
The lead singer told the Rick Rubin’s Broken Record podcast the band recorded “two or three” albums during the pandemic.
Speaking on the podcast in October 2020, Butler said: “We had been writing for a year and we’re doing our first session towards the record when Covid came down.
“I’ve just been writing, like I can’t remember a time where I’ve written more.”