Arcade Fire, Madison Square Garden review: Irony, sincerity, whatever – it all sounds amazing

Thirteen years on from their debut album Win Butler and co may have jarringly broken with tradition, but their set proves they're still one of the best bands in the world

Will Butler bangs his drum inside Madison Square Garden's musical boxing ring (Angela Cranford/MSG Photos)

Irony is back, baby. Following in the footsteps of Anohni, who used it to devastating effect on last year's "Drone Bomb Me" and "4 Degrees", Arcade Fire’s new album Everything Now is a sarcastic ode to our modern world.

The concept is a 2017 update on Gordon Gecko's “Greed is Good”, with added fidget spinners. Now we have everything we need, the question is no longer a moral one, but a matter of convenience. How much we can get and how soon we can get it? And what does that mean?

Everything Now riffs on our obsession with technology, its affect on our brains, and the “infinite content” bombarding them via the internet. In the lead up to their album release, the band created a fake global corporation called EN, pushed “fake news”, sold fidget spinner USB sticks, and released a made-up cereal. Their lyrics, once delicate, are now angrily acerbic. "It goes on and on, I don't know what I want. On and on, I don't know if I want it," Win Butler shouts on "Creature Comfort".

What ever happened to the sincere Arcade Fire? Their albums have always had themes, but it has almost always been delivered with a heartfelt tone. Everything now is so satirical. Win Butler used to lament that his body was a cage, but now he’s singing ironic love songs about its bars.

This pivot to irony is concerning if you’ve always loved Arcade Fire for their direct appeal to our emotions, and it's everywhere you look. A cowboy with a constellation for a face flashes up on Madison Square Garden's big screens before the band begins. “How will you remember the concert if you haven't bought a souvenir?” he asks, as people take photos on their phones. “Your memory ain’t what it used to be!”.

It’s schlocky, but the cowboy is right; remembering anything is definitely harder these days. It doesn’t matter however, as Arcade Fire delivers an unforgettable performance that all the phone scrolling in the world couldn't erase.

Once they've jumped inside their boxing ring stage, Win Butler and co launch into the title track of Everything Now. Against a backdrop of mixed album reviews, it’s an immediate reminder of how they’re still one of the best bands in the world.

In fact, the set is one affirmation of this fact after the next. Arcade Fire's instrumentation may have shifted from strings to synths over time, but it has always retained its beautifully layered, orchestral quality that makes any room and chest brim with emotion. And this can be heard almost no matter what they play, whether it's from the swelling tides of Funeral, or the electro-disco ballads of Reflektor.

Régine Chassagne surveys the New York crowd (Angela Cranford/MSG Photos)

Apart from the strange ”‘Electric Blue”, in which Regine Chassagne’s voice resembles something between Die Antwoord’s Yolandi Visser and t.A.T.u, there is not a single lull in the energy or joy of the proceedings. The band showcases their best songs from the new album while dusting off all the right tracks from their back catalogue to the audience's elation.

With its thumping momentum and sparkling melody, “Sprawl II” is a particular highlight. “No Cars Go”, “Neighbourhood #1” and “Rebellion (Lies)” all make glorious appearances too. As per tradition, “Wake Up” closes the set, and never really ends. Its refrain bounces off the corridors and staircases of Madison Square Garden as the crowd flows out, ahhing and ah-ahhing until they spill out onto the streets of central Manhattan.

Irony, sincerity, none of it matters; it all sounds good.