Well, what more can you say about the Arcade Fire that hasn’t already been said? They’ve been called the saviours of Canadian music by certain free London newspapers (when, exactly, was the Canadian scene booming over here anyway?), have written two of the most intoxicating debuts of recent years and have had people clicking refresh from morning to night in order to get tickets to one of their sublime concerts. Maybe things are starting to get a little bit… predictable.

 Starting a 3-night residency at one of London’s more ‘interesting’ venues, the Alexandra Palace, the Arcade Fire sauntered onto the stage as if they were born to it, and - considering the background of one or two of the band - perhaps they are. Every note was hit with the precision of a band who have painstakingly mastered the craft that is their rambunctious music, and everybody in the crowd instantly turned into grinning loons - albeit, singing ones.

Sadly, this was all that can really be said about the evening. If you’ve seen Arcade Fire before on this tour, you’d instantly know what to expect. A set-list scattered with gems from their LPs, a lead singer on over-confident yet imperious form and a stage scattered with screens displaying arty video of the band’s performance. In fact, let’s just return to the lead singer for a second, as - if anything has changed - it may well be him.

Win Butler (for that is his name) always struck me as a modest, down-to-earth chap. In interviews he came across as the archetypal, under-achieving artist; confident in what he was doing yet happily humble if anyone else would ever appreciate it. There is something extremely endearing about such an approach to your work (perhaps because I’m British) and it was always a pleasure to hear fairytale-esque about how he’d treat his fans. Now, Win appears to be standing on a precipice; on one side lurks the unflattering world of self-important rock imperialism (the Bono factor) and, on the other, that of the humble megastar with a love for his work and all that it touches (the Michael Stipe factor). I worry about how this one will go.

This, it would appear, sums up Arcade Fire at the moment. They haven’t exactly become stale (their music is far too good for that) and it’s not necessarily true to say that they’ve got too big (why not share your music with thousands of adoring fans?), maybe they’ve just got to find a way to portray their passion onstage once more - rather than getting stuck in a routine. Sadly, long tours can do that to you though…

HMMM...