Arcade Fire (Creative Commons)

The show last night at the Shrine Auditorium was no exception. Although the venue wasn’t the ideal place for a show like this, the energy from the crowd helped create the atmosphere – everyone standing up together, unified, screaming their heads off and dancing.

The show appropriately began with “Ready to Start,” heating up the crowd with feelings only Arcade Fire can incite.

The band has an onstage presence that is melodramatic, but completely raw and genuine at the same time.

They played a perfect mixture of songs off Funeral, Neon Bible, and The Suburbs albums. Win Butler and Regine Chassagne’s voices are even better live.

Chassagne twirled around the stage in her sparkly dress while Butler clutched the microphone in a way that made everybody swoon.

“Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” is a general favorite off of The Suburbs, so it was a little disappointing when Chassagne took center stage and performed it early in the setlist. This song should have come on during the encore.

After some technical difficulties, the concert really took a turn with “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels).” Visuals of snow drifted behind the band—the perfect complement for this song.

Arcade Fire has the ability to evoke the same emotions in everybody. These emotions wrapped around the crowd and the band, tying everyone together in beautiful unison.

“Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)” struck the crowd with intense red lights and strobes, then perfectly transitioned into “Rebellion (Lies).”

At the end of “Rebellion (Lies),” the band completely cut all sound except Regine Chassagne’s microphone, and the song trailed off with the entire crowd eerily humming the tune of the song in the darkness.

The humming continued simultaneously with the cheering and clapping for an encore, all-encompassing and haunting.

The band came back on with “Keep The Car Running;” the nine members poignantly playing the instruments which create the layers of sound that only Arcade Fire can do.

“Wake Up” was the last song of the night, leaving the crowd completely spellbound.

Arcade Fire plays another show tonight at the Shrine, which will be just as incredible.

Reach contributor Kaitlyn Fong here.