Stream: Arcade Fire will play “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)” for the first time at Coachella 2022

taketonews

Arcade Fire announced their hitherto secret set at the Coachella Festival in California with a Twitter post last Thursday (April 14). On the first day of the festival, they played an hour-long show that also included tracks from their forthcoming album WE. You can see recordings and reactions here.

Secret birthday gig

Win Butler gave the crucial clue to the Arcade Fire performance on the band’s Twitter account with a selfie. This shows the musician surrounded by palm trees, the lines to the photo read: “I have decided to spend my birthday somewhere warm and dry.” To do this, he tagged the official Coachella account.

The set took place in the Mojave tent, which was also used by IDLES shortly afterwards. It opened with the current comeback single “Lightning I, II”, followed by hits from their previous five studio albums such as “Wake Up”, “Rebellion (Lies)” and “Everything Now”.

Arcade Fire play new song

The new song “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)”, which was only announced last week (April 13), was also played. Singer Win Butler announced that he was dedicating the title to his son. After beginning the first verse with the lyrics “Look out kid, trust your heart,” the singer paused for a moment. He briefly covered his eyes with his hands and stepped back from the microphone. Then he explained to the audience: “It’s been a damn hard year” and continued the performance he had started.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbaI19hyGtE

A photo shows Butler crowd surfing.

Variety tweeted a recording of the performance of Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains).

Other posts show enthusiastic fans cheering the performance.

It was recently announced that Will Butler is no longer part of the band. He simply evolved and left after the upcoming album was finished in 2021. The album WE – which was announced in an unusual way – is due to be released on May 6th.



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