Watch Arcade Fire Bring on Buster Poindexter for ‘Hot Hot Hot’ Cover

Arcade Fire managed to put yet another novel spin on their Reflektor tour hometown covers tradition on Friday night. For their show at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, the band doubled up on local references by playing the New York Dolls’ “Personality Crisis” before bringing out Buster Poindexter (a.k.a. New York Dolls singer David Johansen) to perform his 1987 hit “Hot Hot Hot.” 

As Billboard reports, the bobbleheaded Reflektors band got things started on the B stage by miming along to “Personality Crisis,” off the New York Dolls’ 1973 debut studio album. Soon afterward, Johansen and the real band took over with the tropical beats, prompting a conga line of bobbleheads and skeletons snaking through the audience.

Johansen’s appearance wouldn’t have come as a surprise to those keeping a close eye on Buster Poindexter’s Facebook page. Early Friday morning, he announced his plans with a casual post. “Going to Brooklyn’s Barclay Center tonight to sing a song with the wonderful Arcade Fire,” he wrote. “What tune should should we do?”

Friday night’s show marked at least the second time on the Reflektors tour that Arcade Fire have been joined by a song’s original artist for one of their covers. During a June show in London, Echo and the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch took the stage to perform “The Cutter” with them – though since the Bunnymen are a Liverpool band, the geographic match wasn’t quite as tight.

Earlier this week, Arcade Fire’s tour found them covering the Pixies’ “Alec Eiffel,” in Mansfield, Massachusetts and Fugazi’s “Waiting Room” in Washington, D.C. They’ll play two more shows in Brooklyn this weekend before heading off to Chicago on August 26th and 27th.