Panorama Festival: For Arcade Fire's Return to America, The Music Doesn’t Change, But You Do

On Friday, New York City’s first-ever Panorama festival played host to Arcade Fire’s first U.S. show in two years. It was my second time seeing them live, the first being in Columbus, Ohio in April 2014 to promote their fourth studio album, Reflektor. I had a lukewarm reception to the album, which echoed themes of disconnection, dissonance and dissolution. It also had a funkier, more shimmery, electronic feel which was, on the surface, why I snubbed it. The real reason probably had far more to do with the fact that the album’s narratives—of fake friends, diminishing romantic relationships, and technological codependence—matched my own life too closely as a senior in college, and I wasn’t ready to face it head-on quite yet. But getting a chance to see them live was still precious to me.

I was 16 when a boy I liked introduced “No Cars Go” to me and I bluntly told him, “This is weird.” But, when you like boys in high school, you like their music taste too, and that eventually made me into a super-fan. “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)” probably has more listens than any other songs in my iTunes library, since I wasn’t able to fall asleep without listening to it before bed every night. I was sure my first tattoo would be its lyrics. (It wasn’t.) I wanted to go to Coachella in high school more than anything just to see the multi-instrumental Canadian band work their magic. But I wasn’t able to see the band until almost eight years later, and by then I was too cool to admit my deep fandom.