By Jacob Calle

I couldn’t imagine being any where else other than seeing Arcade Fire perform at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion last night on May the fourth, which fell on national Star Wars day. Have never watched Star Wars, I was perfectly okay with knowing that May the fourth was a day that Arcade Fire played their latest album in a town that inspired the record.

As I sat in my seat along next to the Houston Press “Rocks Off” gang a young professional type guy nudged me, “This band is from The Woodlands!”. Well…kinda… Each song had the amount of energy that one would think it was their encore set. In-between songs lead singer, Win Butler would make statements about living in The Woodlands including his opening mark, “It’s good to be back home.” as well as how he was hassled by Woodlands police when he lived here. Win made a shout out to his old friends and family that attended his performance, a group of old folk in front of us raised their hands in joyous glee. Had I made any connection with the man’s lips, he probably said “That’s my boy.” Not too sure if it really was his family, but they seemed pretty ecstatic about his statement. They seemed like the type that would have went to see Bob Seger, who played a few nights before, not an Arcade Fire concert.

The band pelted through their set without giving any of the audience pity of their broken feet. We danced till the last beat of the drum. The grassy lawn was closed for this night as the whole concert took place underneath the canopy giving everyone a more intimate experience with Arcade Fire. Butler confessed that he once worked at Cynthia Woods and was quite lazy with the ticket checking. He would let people pass through without ticket inspection. Later in the set just before “Power Out” he mentioned it again giving a “hint hint” for everyone to come up front. A large rush of Arcade fans from the back ran to the front to dance in this religious experience. There could have easily been rattlesnakes on stage as Arcade Fire prayed to the Gods of the suburbs and rockn’ roll.

It was a very magical moment for those who went. This was a show that will never have the same affect anywhere else in the US. The closest would be their home town show in Canada, but this is the United States and we own that. The show ended with Regine’s magical “Sprawl II”. There is a spark about that girl that does not dwell in others. She is from another country that you have never heard before, because it does not exist. She is not a human nor animal. She is Regine. A delicate spirit with copious amounts of energy. She put the audience back into reality as she danced with ribbons on stage with a smile across her face. The show was over, but the memories that we have are there to last forever. This being my 5th time to see this band. I was just as excited from the first time I saw them. By far the great live performance in a rock band that I have ever seen.