Alternative rock reached the height of its popularity during the 1990s. That was the decade when the genre really began to resonate with the masses. By the time the second half of the decade came around, alternative music had taken on a whole new shape and had become more diversified than any time in its history.
Leading that movement entering into the next millennium were plenty of bands and at the head of the queue was Arcade Fire. The band has not only pushed the envelope but in a way has redefined indie rock music. They are not done touring yet and will travel outside the US to perform in the early part of 2018. Who knows, they might just announce a few special dates for their fans in North America before that? If indie rock is your genre, then grab your Arcade Fire tickets and watch this unbelievable band live in concert.
Explosive Early Days
It was Jose Deu and Win Butler who formed Arcade Fire in the year 2001. The two had met for the first at the famous Phillips Exeter Academy and then the two went on to attend McGill University. The two began to rehearse together and were then joined by Regine Chassagne.
The three of them began to record a few demos and started performing live in the second part of the year 2001. The band had expanded its line-up too. Tim Kyle, Myles Broscoe, Brendan Reed and Dane Mills had joined Arcade Fire by then. However that line-up did not stay together for too long and things began to take a turn for the worse as early as the summer of 2002.
They went to record their first EP on the farmhouse owned by Butler’s family but Broscoe and Butler had one confrontation too many. That led to the former leaving the band. Richard Reed Parry then joined them but then all of a sudden Deu decided to quit too in order to focus on his studies.
The work still continued on their eponymous EP and Arcade Fire performed a very special show in the winters of 2003 at Casa del Popolo in Montreal to celebrate its release. In a shocking turn of events, Reed and Butler got into an argument and because of that Reed left the band on the stage right there and then. They had to end their set as a result of that. Mills then announced that as far as he was concerned the band no longer existed and then he quit too.
Win Butler, William Butler’s brother stepped in along with Tim Kingsbury for Arcade Fire to continue. They started promoting their extended play by giving out copies of it on their live shows. Slowly but surely their popularity began to grow and they were soon signed by Merge Records.
The Debut Album
In North America, Arcade Fire came out with their first album “Funeral” on September 14, 2004. In Europe, it hit the music stores on February 28, 2005. The album turned out to be a massive critical success. It received five out of five stars from AllMusic, Blender and The Guardian. Rolling Stone and Q both gave it four stars out of five.
Funeral also made it to the “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die” book. Apart from that Consequence of Sound put it on the second spot on its 2009 list of the “Top Albums of the 2000s” while it also made it to Rolling Stone’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” It went gold in the US and platinum in England and Canada.
Arcade Fire then decided to go on a tour and chose relatively small venues to perform. However, they had to move to bigger venues for quite a few performances due to the overwhelming demand for Arcade Fire tickets. The band also went on to perform at festivals like Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Lollapalooza, Vegoose Festival, Lowland Festival (Netherlands) and Reading and Leeds Festival (UK) among others.
Not only that but Arcade Fire also opened for U2 and performed with superstars like David Bowie. Funeral and its single Cold Wind earned a Grammy nomination. They also won a Juno Award in the category of “Songwriters Of The Year.”
One Hit After Another
To say Arcade Fire had made a massive impact with Funeral would be an understatement. They had momentum on their side and they made the most of it too. Their next album was titled “Neon Bible” and it hit the stores on March 6, 2007. It received four stars out of five from AllMusic and The Guardian. At the same time, Rolling Stone gave it four and a half stars out of five while Q magazine gave it all five.
Neon Bible also went on to top charts in countries like Canada and Ireland. It also went as high as the second spot on the US Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart. Neon Bible has been certified gold in Canada and Australia while it went platinum in England.
Arcade Fire have released three more studio albums since then. All three of those have been commercial and critical hits. “The Suburbs” was certified platinum in Ireland and England while it earned two times platinum certification in Canada. It also received four stars out of five from AllMusic, The Guardian and Rolling Stone.
“Reflektor” was released on October 2, 2013 and it went triple platinum in Canada. It also received three and a half stars out of five from AllMusic and three from The Guardian. The Independent gave it four out of five while Rolling Stone rated it good enough to get four and a half stars out of five.
Their most recent album “Everything Now” came out on July 28, 2017 and went silver in the UK in less than six months. On the critical front, it received three stars out of five from AllMusic and The Guardian while The Independent and NME both gave it all five stars.
Arcade Fire Tour Tickets
Arcade Fire are scheduled to perform two shows in Peru and Argentina soon. They will also headline the Okeechobee Festival in March of 2018 before they fly to Europe. Who is to say they will not perform in North America before then. If you want to watch them live, then Arcade Fire tour tickets are all that you need.
