Kevin Bronson on February 12th, 2011

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Our special correspondent at Friday night’s Arcade Fire surprise show was a man who’d seen the band before – as recently as October, at the Shrine Auditorium – but still waited in line outside Origami Vinyl all night in 40-degree temperatures to get a ticket. He propped eyes open all day Friday, made it to the Ukranian Cultural Center and had this to say afterward: “It was completely worth it, and I would do it again in a second.”

The Grammy-nominated Canadians – very aware they were playing to a crowd of true believers – were high spirits for all of their sprawling set. “Thank you everyone for coming,” frontman Win Butler told the crowd before the band played “We Used to Wait.” “To everyone who camped outside, you’re probably crazy.”

That made everyone in the room nuts, then, and the crowd responded accordingly, jumping, clapping and beckoning the band. Most of the 600 or so attendees had indeed waited hours for the opportunity to buy tickets after the band’s Twitter feed on Thursday night had revealed (too-easy) “clues” as to the outlets.

As for the venue, Butler said, “It’s a relief to get out of fucking West Hollywood for a fucking second. When we pulled up to this place, I was like, fuck yeah. … I can’t tell you how different the spirit is playing a small show like this.”

For the record, here’s what Arcade Fire played:

Month of May
Rebellion
Neighborhood 2
No Cars Go
Haiti
City With No Children
Intervention
Suburban War
Wake Up
Neighborhood 1
In the Backseat
Neighborhood 3
We Used to Wait

Encore:
Ready to Start
Keep the Car Running
Sprawl II