Following their two-song set on the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, NBC were kind enough to throw Arcade Fire a bit more in the way of public exposure with Here Comes the Night Time, a 22-minute concert / skit show / ? promoting the release of their fourth studio album, Reflektor. While the piece, directed by Roman Coppola, provides an obvious draw for fans — the live performance of three new songs: an eponymous track, “We Exist,” and “Normal Person” — those who’ve still yet to catch up to the indie superstars might find this a suitable entry.
Along with those rocking tunes — as well as a very brief, very demented version of “Wake Up” — Michael Cera, James Franco (duh), Rainn Wilson, Bono, Ben Stiller, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Hader, and Zach Galifianakis provide off-kilter cameos, while Eric Wareheim & Aziz Ansari feature in their own low-fi buddy sitcom. (This, coupled with a faux-horror entry by the name of Festi, rather explicitly recall the more esoteric bits of their 2009 documentary-of-sorts Miroir Noir; how nice it might have been if Coppola was the director on that one.) While something of a goof, overall, Here Comes the Night Time nevertheless makes for a nice little detour before Arcade Fire‘s double-part record hits in just about a month’s time — and if one hopes to start off the coming week with a kick, you need not look any further.
The full show can be seen below (via ArcadeFireTube), as well as their two SNL performances.
Reflektor will be released on October 28.
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