Arcade Fire 5/4 at DAR Constituion Hall

Black Mirror
No Cars Go
Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
Haiti
Black Wave/Bad Vibrations
Neon Bible
Windowsill
The Well & the Lighthouse
Ocean of Noise
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) ->
Rebellion (Lies)
Keep the Car Running
------------------------------
Intervention
Wake Up

About 80 minutes of fun. I apparently needed to listen to the new album a couple more times, preferably with the ability to, you know, learn the names of the songs. Luckily I was able to get all but one based on the lyrics, and I have Last.fm to link me to some Virginia girl's blog who was also there, and with her pointing out that the song I missed (due to my inability to write legibly in the dark without a solid thing to write on) was Haiti, I was able to get the setlist right.

As for the show itself, I was not incredibly impressed with the National, although they were good. I think something had to do with seeing hundreds of people milling around, and then walking into the theatre and seeing that the band was already playing. What the hell people? It's not like The National aren't known, I couldn't name a song or album before seeing them, although I did apparently listen to one of their songs back in January of 2006, but how can you just not even acknowledge that there's music that you paid an obscene amount of money to Ticketmaster to see? The National didn't seem particularly talkative, and I couldn't see the stage for a while, as some idiot sat down next to me (not her ticketed seats), and sat as far forward as she possibly could. Since it was just the National, and I was spending most of the set looking for my friends (again, stupid Ticketmaster stuck four people in four different areas... boo!), so I didn't entirely mind. But it's not like she had to sit there as far forward, considering the people on the other side were sitting down talking to the other people not in their assigned seats behind them. So after the set I went off to find my friends and realized the ushers were doing a completely inconsistent job of making people move.

I was a section over for the first two songs, and then in my assigned seat (after having to kick a very nice, if confused, girl out of my seat who had a ticket for a seat three rows behind mine) for the rest of the set. I had a pretty good view, completely unobstructed, which was very nice.

The set started with a video on one of the mini screens that were hooked up to cameras that were on some lit pillars on the front of the stage and a few other places as well. The video appeared to be Regine doing some televangelistic preaching, and the few lines I could pick up seemed to be about butts: butt kissing, possibly an enema, and maybe some other crazy things. It was a semi-absurd way to start the show, but starting up with Black Mirror meant that I was quickly pretty taken and enjoying myself. I wish I had had a chance to see them before they ended up playing this huge of a venue, because it seemed like they couldn't quite connect until Win invited everyone up after Tunnels, which just meant the last three songs of the set and the encore were absolutely electric. I know I wasn't the only one singing along at the top of my lungs for the last five songs (well... ok, for pretty much every song). And the segue from Power Out to Rebellion was the best thing I've seen live in a very long time. Well, at least since I saw Superchunk, but that's a rare thing nowadays. They took a slightly longer break than I was expecting between Intervention and Wake Up, and it seemed like Win had to be talked into playing it. Maybe he hasn't fully recovered from the surgery? Either way, he asked everyone to sing along to Wake Up, and the entire audience dutifully did so. It was quite a good way to end the set, and my only regret about the show was the completely exorbitant fees added on to the ticket price. I don't regret going, I regret Ticketmaster existing.