Fire Down Below

And so the fates decreed that the faithful would endure chronic weather and fearsome journeys to witness the Arcade Fire in Dublin. They would barrel over ice and sheets of fog, succoured by the music pumping through their cars and the promise of reaching the O2 venue where the multitudes would roar on the most worthy of acts.

Here is the reward, then. A mass of excited hearts in this large venue, preparing to rattle the roofbeams when the band members file on. In response, those musicians will load up the evening with their feverish tunes, their bawling admissions and clunky instruments.

Arcade Fire are revving their way across another significant year, with their third album setting the mood for an aggrieved time. 'The Suburbs' is about being exiled on the main street, feeling deeply uncomfortable with the culture, but not entirely sure where they should conduct their affairs. There's a clear irony when they bellow out the chorus to 'Rococo', which mocks the post-modern parade. And of course the words are taken up by hundreds of hipsters in the crowd, wearing the uniform.

But the emotional value can't be lost. They remind us that horrendous things are happening to Haiti, they inflame morale with songs like 'Keep The Car Running' and even when Win seems at his most distressed and lost, there's an inner compass that steers us all to the next station.

Regine is magnificent. She hits the notes with reliable ease, she plays drums and accordion and waves streamers in the air like some Olympian ace. On 'Sprawl II' she's working through Yoko and disco and singing about the dread life of shopping malls and the conformity that kills.

It's quite a spectacle then, and they provide the greatest summation with 'Wake Up' - a call to be alert, engaged and a proper functioning human. It's enough to get us home through the blizzard, and beyond.