IN CONCERT: Burning Down the House: Arcade Fire delivers a rousing non-stop party at the Bowl

Montreal's Arcade Fire lived up to their live concert performance renown at the SB Bowl last Monday
Montreal’s Arcade Fire lived up to their live concert performance renown at the SB Bowl last Monday

Last year, when Flaming Lips brought their outre show to the Santa Barbara Bowl, it was a strange combo that didn’t work: confetti cannons, amazing light show, gigantic balloons shooting out over the audience on one hand; morose and dark music underneath, the opposite of the fun the party favors promised.

However, that promise was fulfilled last Monday night, when another band of live concert renown, Montreal’s Arcade Fire, made their first Bowl appearance. They too brought confetti cannon and streamers, both a light show of mirrors, disco ball suits, and video projection. But most of all they brought their exciting catalog, from the stirring anthems of 2004’s “Funeral” to their 2013 delve-into-dance-music “Reflektor.” When lead signer Win Butler told us at the beginning to all stand up — “you can sit down at the end of the show” — he was not kidding. The audience followed suit, and the band made sure there was no reason to rest.

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Lips, Atoms, and other Musical Matters – LOCAL POP AND JAZZ HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR

Atoms for Peace performs at the Santa Barbara Bowl. Thomas Kelsey/News-Press file photos
Atoms for Peace performs at the Santa Barbara Bowl.
Thomas Kelsey/News-Press file photos

My humble vote for pop concert of the year in Santa Barbara goes to the great and insistently hard-to-pigeonhole band outta’ Oklahoma, Flaming Lips. The band, led by charismatic Wayne Coyne in a bloody, witch-ly costume and throne-like perch, brought its grisly funny, rocking and trippy presence to the Santa Barbara Bowl the night after Halloween, ending with its mortality-minded pop anthem “Do You Realize.”

And my vote for the most senses-tickling five minutes in the 2013 pop year goes to the Lips’ opening song, which perversely reversed expectations by being a grand finale-style bombast with their customary epic red balloon release into the audience — but on the first song. Leave it to these Okies to turn rock ‘n’ roll convention on its ear.

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