Arcade Fire @ SECC, 26 Oct

The pompous sloganeering of a spoofed televangelist announces the Arcade Fire to a sizeable crowd, but any comedic effect is lost in the soulless cave of the SECC, where even the loudest of proclamations becomes a muffled mess before it reaches the second row. Black Mirror is a fluke, strangely complimented by the muddy mix while it plays out like the darker, introverted sibling of Rebellion (Lies), but it soon falls upon sheer theatrics to, y'know, Keep the Car Running.

Win Butler takes his stance behind a grand church organ like a reluctant messiah to grapple with My Body Is a Cage and Intervention while his gang indulges in beating a crash helmet with a drumstick and the wife skips around them all, merrily playing away on any instrument that comes to hand. True to form, Wake Up could bring a tear to a glass eye; it's just a pity that the poor acoustics of the venue are no different. [Dave Kerr]