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Arcade Fire Take On Security @ Radio City

11th May 2007 | by Gavin Riley

Win Butler doesn't seem like your average crowd provoker. But the absurdity of last night's Radio City Hall gig was not lost on the enigmatic frontman of Arcade Fire.

Fresh from surgery to his throat, Butler proved that he hadn't lost his coarseness as he implored the crowd to surge past four determined security guards.

As documented by the Gowanus Lounge and the Gothamist blogs, security at Radio City Hall worked doubly hard to contain fans who had come to see Montreal's finest at the David Bowie curated Highline Music Festival Shows.

Butler had previously told the crowd: “Come on, there's plenty of room down front. Let more people up here!” he yelled immediately after the band's first song. As they did, they were quickly shut down by the flashlight-wielding guards barking orders in the aisles.

Then it all kicked off at towards the end of the show when Win Butler urged the audience to come up to the stage. “Jesus Christ,” he said. “Come up here. What can they do to you?”

Gowanus Lounge explained: "What they could do, it turned out, was rush you, jump you, beat you and drag you from Radio City in a headlock. The action kicked off between Rows AA and GG in the aisle between the 300 and 400 section of the orchestra when someone took Mr. Butler at his word and pushed past ushers. This is not a wise thing to do at Radio City. At that point, about a half-dozen employees descended on him, trying to stop him.

They pushed him into the seats and we saw at least one (and possibly more) of the Radio City security employees punching the concert goer. The concert goer may have struggled with them--either to get to the stage or to escape the beating--but that's beside the point."

When Mr. Butler came back on stage for the encore he referred to encouraging fans to come up to the stage and said, “I apologize to Radio City security. I was a bad boy.”

Photo: Tammylo