The Chicago Theatre Fire

Friday night I went to see the Arcade Fire at the Chicago Theatre, and though it was good, I feel like they're really looking for some kind of religious, ecclesiastical effect, which chairs and aisles tat restricted people from moving around didn't achieve. I'd seen them once before, at the Sasquatch Festival like a couple years ago, and I actually liked that first show a lot more. It was a festival, so everyone was really hot and gross and sweaty, so we all just danced around and chanted with each other, and obviously the crowd was a lot smaller, which gave a lot more gravitas to their tendency to jump around and destroy/bang on shit. In such a large context as that of the Chicago Theatre a lot of that was lost, and it was just kind of lost. I mean, it's still worth going, totally, but in my case the venue - though appropriate in some ways - kind of detracted from the performance.