Arcade Fire End Tour With Triumphant Wolf Parade Cover
Arcade Fire wrapped up the final North American leg of their Reflektor tour – and with it, those well curated geographically themed cover songs for nearly every stop – with a hometown gig at Montreal, Quebec’s Parc Jean-Drapeau on August 30. With a multitude of great Montreal artists to choose from — Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Grimes, Voivod and even Of Montreal if they wanted to go that route – Arcade Fire settled on one of Win Butler’s personal favorites, Wolf Parade.
By performing Wolf Parade’s “I’ll Believe in Anything,” Arcade Fire brought a sense of closure to their nearly yearlong trek. Both groups came up together in the Montreal music scene nearly a decade ago, and Win Butler and co. brought Wolf Parade on tour with them in the Funeral era. Wolf Parade drummer Arlen Thompson also played drums on the studio version of Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up.” The Montreal band went on “indefinite hiatus” in 2011, but both leading members – Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner – continue to release music with Moonface and Divine Fits, respectively.
In addition to the raucous singalong of the Apologies to the Queen Mary track, the fake band that pantomimes before Arcade Fire return for the encore also “performed” the work of another Quebec legend, Celine Dion. Arcade Fire’s tour in support of Reflektor started nearly a year ago with secret gigs in small Montreal salsa clubs. In 2014 alone the band played nearly 80 concerts, including two North American legs and headlining slots at a handful of music festivals. Finally, the tour date page of their official site is empty, but they leave us with a massive amount of covers from this trek.
Check out the complete list of regional cover songs from this leg of the Arcade Fire tour:
July 30: Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Hey Tonight” in Mountain View, CA
July 1: Jane’s Addiction’s “Been Caught Stealing” in Englewood, CA
July 2: Harold Faltmeyer’s “Axel F” (Beverly Hills Cop theme) in Englewood, CA
August 5: Dead Kennedys’ “California Über Alles” in Chula Vista, CA
August 8: Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” tease in George, WA
August 10: Huey Lewis and the News’ “Back in Time” in Vancouver, BC
August 12: Feist’s “I Feel It All” in Calgary, AB
August 14: Neil Young’s “Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown” in Winnipeg, MB
August 17: Fugazi’s “Waiting Room” in Washington D.C.
August 19: Pixies’ “Alec Eiffel” in Mansfield, MA
August 22: Buster Poindexter’s “Hot Hot Hot” (with David Johansen) in Brooklyn, NY
August 23: Ramones’ “I Don’t Wanna Go Down to the Basement” and “I Wanna Be Sedated” with Marky Ramone in Brooklyn, NY
August 24: Suicide’s “Dream Baby Dream” with David Byrne in Brooklyn, NY
August 26: Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love?” in Chicago, IL
August 27: The Staples Singers’ “This May Be the Last Time” and the Rolling Stones’ “The Last Time” with Mavis Staples in Chicago, IL
August 29: Ronnie Hawkins’ “Who Do You Love?” in Toronto, ON
August 30: Wolf Parade’s “I’ll Believe In Anything” in Montreal, QC