2001–2003: Formation and early work Win Butler and
Josh Deu founded Arcade Fire in
Montreal around 2001, having first met at
Phillips Exeter Academy as high school students. Butler and Deu's musical ideas began to develop and the first incarnation of the band was born while they were attending
McGill University and
Concordia University, respectively. The duo began rehearsing their material at McGill where they met
Régine Chassagne, a music student whom they asked to join them. Deu recalls, "Win and I played guitar. Everyone played guitar. We had no music to show her, but she ended up saying yes to joining us, and I don't know why. Maybe there was a little spark with Win." The initial Montreal structure of the band began to dissolve in the summer of 2002, when they travelled to Butler's family farm on Mount Desert Island, Maine to record their
self-titled EP. Tension between Butler and bassist Myles Broscoe led the latter to exit the band following the recording session.
Richard Reed Parry, who had been enlisted to help the band record, began to collaborate with them during the sessions and would go on to join the band shortly afterwards. Mills told gathered friends in the crowd immediately thereafter that he considered the band to have broken up, as such resigning from the band as well. Following the on-stage implosion, Butler's brother
Will Butler (subject of the early Arcade Fire song "William Pierce Butler") and
Tim Kingsbury were brought in to replace Reed and Mills so that the band could continue,
Howard Bilerman joined the band on drums in the summer of 2003, and they began to play shows together, and record the album that would end up becoming
Funeral. The promise shown by the new band in their early live shows allowed them to land a record contract with the independent record label,
Merge Records, before the end of their first year together. When asked about the rumour that the band's name refers to a fire in an arcade, Win Butler replied: "It's not a rumour. It's based on a story that someone told me. It's not an actual event, but one that I took to be real. I would say that it's probably something that the kid made up, but at the time I believed him."
2004–2006: Funeral Funeral was released in September 2004 in Canada and February 2005 in Great Britain. The title of the debut album referred to the deaths of several relatives of band members (prominently the Butlers' grandfather, composer/arranger
Alvino Rey) during its recording. These events created a somber atmosphere that influenced songs such as "Une année sans lumière" ("A Year Without Light"), "In the Backseat", and "Haïti", Chassagne's
elegy to her homeland. It received widespread critical acclaim and topped many year-end and decade-end lists. According to the website
Metacritic, the album had the second most appearances on end-of-decade Top 10 lists, only behind
Radiohead's
Kid A. In the updated version of
Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, it was ranked at No. 500. The album was critically acclaimed and commercially successful. It appeared on many
top ten album lists for 2004 and 2005 (due to delayed international releases), with
Pitchfork,
Filter, No Ripcord, and The MTV2 2005 Review crowning it the album of the year.
NME named
Funeral second in their list of 2005's best albums. NME also named "
Rebellion (Lies)" the second best track. By November 2005,
Funeral had gone gold in both Canada and the UK, and sold over half a million copies worldwide, a very large number for an independent release with minimal television or radio exposure. The album became
Merge Records' first in the
Billboard 200 chart and the label's biggest selling album to date, surpassing
Neutral Milk Hotel's
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. The band booked small clubs for their 2004 tour, but growing interest forced many venue changes, far beyond the band's expectations, and the tour continued into mid-2005 throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, the SummerSonic Festival in Japan, and the Hillside Festival in
Guelph. Taking much of the summer of 2005 off, the band made key festival appearances at the
Halifax Pop Explosion,
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the
Sasquatch! Music Festival,
Lollapalooza,
Vegoose Festival,
Reading and Leeds Festival in the UK,
Electric Picnic in Ireland and the
Lowlands Festival in the Netherlands. On February 1, 2005, Arcade Fire appeared on ''
Late Night with Conan O'Brian to perform "Neighborhood #2 (Laika)". Arcade Fire was featured on the April 4, 2005, cover of Times Canadian edition. On May 1, 2005, the band performed at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. In May 2005, the band signed a short-term publishing contract with EMI for Funeral
, and in June the band released a new single, "Cold Wind", on Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends''. The
BBC used the track "
Wake Up" on an advertisement for their autumn 2005 season, and the tracks "Rebellion (Lies)" and "
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" on adverts in January 2006. On September 9, 2005, the band appeared on the British/US television special "Fashion Rocks", on which
David Bowie joined them for "Wake Up". This recording, as well as recordings of the band's collaboration on Bowie's "Life on Mars" and "Five Years", were made available on the
iTunes Music Store in a virtual live EP. The same trip to New York City took them to the
Late Show with David Letterman and a concert in
Central Park. The Central Park show featured a surprise appearance by Bowie. On September 11, 2005, Arcade Fire appeared on the long-running BBC music series
Top of the Pops, performing "Rebellion (Lies)". The band also performed to a TV audience in Paris for
Canal+, and the show was later screened on the British television's
Channel 4. The band scored two number one songs on
MTV2 (UK)
NME Chart Show, with "
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" and a three-week run with "Wake Up". This success followed
Rough Trade Records's last-minute decision to release "Wake Up" only on 7" vinyl. "Wake Up" was played immediately before the Irish rock group
U2 started their concerts on their 2005–06
Vertigo Tour; Arcade Fire subsequently opened three shows for that tour, and at the third in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, appeared on stage during U2's encore to join in a cover of
Joy Division's "
Love Will Tear Us Apart". Additionally,
The Dan Patrick Show, a daily national sports talk show in the US, plays the song as a lead-out every Friday to signify the end of their show. The song was also heard numerous times during the Super Bowl telecast on February 5, 2010.
Funeral and the single "
Cold Wind" were nominated for
Grammys in the
Best Alternative Rock Album and
Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media categories (
Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends), respectively. On April 2, 2006, in
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Arcade Fire received the
Juno Award for Songwriters Of The Year for three songs from
Funeral: "Wake Up", "Rebellion (Lies)", and "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)". The band was nominated for three
BRIT Awards: Best International Group, Best International Album, and Best International Breakthrough Act. Arcade Fire made an appearance on the BBC show
Later with Jools Holland on May 12, 2005, performing "Power Out" and "Rebellion (Lies)". On October 22, 2007,
Funeral was ranked No.8 in
Bob Mersereau's book
The Top 100 Canadian Albums. In late 2009, Pitchfork ranked the album No.2 in their list of the top 200 albums of the 2000s, behind
Radiohead's
Kid A.
2006–2010: Neon Bible on May 7, 2007 During the downtime between
Funeral and the beginning of recording sessions for
Neon Bible, the band purchased a defunct church in the small Quebec town of
Farnham, approximately southeast of Montreal, and spent the early part of 2006 converting it into a recording studio. The first track officially released from
Neon Bible was "
Intervention" in December 2006 on
iTunes. Proceeds from this release were dedicated to
Partners in Health. An error resulted in a second song, "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations", appearing on iTunes for a short time. The album was leaked to
peer-to-peer networks on January 26, 2007, and was officially released March 5, 2007, in the UK and March 6 in North America.
Neon Bible premiered at number 1 on the
Canadian Albums Chart and the Irish Album Charts, and number 2 on the US
Billboard Top 200 charts and the UK Top 40 Album Chart for the week of March 12, 2007. The album was also number 1 on the Rock and Indie album charts. The first proper single, "
Black Mirror", reached the No. 1 spot on
CBC Radio 3's
R3-30 chart for five consecutive weeks, from March 22 to April 19, 2007, and was the first single by any band ever to spend more than two weeks atop the chart. The album gained much critical acclaim (even being mooted as a strong contender for album of the year), and because of its success saw the band proclaimed the most exciting act on the earth by British music magazine
Q.
Paste voted it one of the five best albums of 2007.
Trouser Press writer Jason Reeher ranked
Neon Bible "among the best indie rock recordings of all time". Arcade Fire made their first appearance on
Saturday Night Live on February 24, 2007 (Episode 618), performing "Intervention" and "Keep the Car Running".
Owen Pallett was not present as he was recording for his solo project. During the performance, one of Win Butler's guitar strings broke, prompting him to rip the strings from his acoustic guitar and smash it on the floor until it shattered. On this guitar, "sak vide pa kanpe" was written in duct tape across the front. A
Haitian proverb meaning "An empty sack cannot stand up" in
Creole, this may have been a reference to the extreme poverty of Haiti, the country of origin of Régine Chassagne. On July 10, 2007,
Neon Bible was named to the shortlist for the
2007 Polaris Music Prize.
Patrick Watson was announced as the winner at a gala ceremony on September 24, 2007. However, due to the band's preference not to participate in
compilation albums, they were the only nominee not to have a track on the Polaris promotional compilation
2007 Polaris Music Prize. Some media initially reported that the Polaris committee had snubbed the band by excluding them, leading the band and the committee to issue a joint press release confirming that the band chose not to have a track included on the album. The
Neon Bible tour continued into September 2007 with 25+ dates scheduled in North America and Europe through mid-November. The band toured Australia and New Zealand for the first time in early 2008 as part of the 2008
Big Day Out festival. On October 14, 2007,
Win Butler and Régine Chassagne made a surprise guest appearance at a
Bruce Springsteen show in
Ottawa, playing "State Trooper" and "
Keep the Car Running". The band committed to give
Partners in Health $1.00, £1.00, or €1.00 of every ticket sold on its 2008 European and North American tours. Arcade Fire further helped PIH, when it recorded "Lenin" on
Red Hot Organization's latest album,
Dark Was the Night. Sales from DWTN generated over $850,000 in money donated to AIDS related charities—$300,000 of which was given to PIH on Arcade Fire's behalf. In February 2008, Win Butler announced on the band's journal that the
Neon Bible tour had come to an end, after one year of touring and a total of 122 shows (including 33 festivals) in 75 cities and 19 countries. Critics met the self-produced
Neon Bible with acclaim. Publications like
NME and
IGN praised the album for its grandiose nature.
Win Butler has been a vocal supporter of
Barack Obama since the end of the New Hampshire Primary. Arcade Fire performed two free concerts for Obama in
Cleveland and
Nelsonville, Ohio on March 2 and 3, 2008, before the state's March 4 primary. The band, with
Superchunk, performed another two free concerts for Obama on May 1 in
Greensboro, North Carolina, and on May 2 in
Carrboro, North Carolina before the state's May 6 primary. On January 21, 2009, Arcade Fire and
Jay-Z were the musical guests at the Obama Campaign Staff Ball at the DC Armory, at Obama's request. Butler thanked President Obama for his stated intent to close the
prison at Guantanamo Bay, and repeatedly thanked the Obama staffers for their work during the election. The band was rumoured to be working with producer Markus Dravs on the soundtrack for the
Richard Kelly film
The Box. Win Butler denied the claims, but stated that he and
Owen Pallett "may do an instrumental piece or two" for the film. In December 2008,
Pitchfork reported the band set up the website miroir-noir.com to foreshadow the release of a concert film with the same title, reporting, "Miroir Noir will feature live footage from the Neon Bible tour." The film was directed by Vincent Morisset. It was made available to pre-order on December 15, 2008, with the digital version available to download immediately, and the DVD shipping March 31, 2009. A re-recorded version of the band's song "Wake Up" from their 2004 debut album,
Funeral, was used for the trailer of the
Spike Jonze film
Where the Wild Things Are, which was released in October 2009. The song "Wake Up" has also become popular on sports radio talk shows in the US In 2009, two nationally syndicated shows—
The Dan Patrick Show and
The Petros and Money Show—frequently used the song as "bumper" music. The
National Football League featured this recording in commercials throughout the broadcast of the
2010 Super Bowl. The band donated the proceeds from licensing the song to the NFL to the charity
Partners In Health.
2010–2012: The Suburbs On May 27, 2010, it was announced that a new double-sided 12" single would be released the same day as the full album, called
The Suburbs, on August 2 in the UK and on August 3 in the US and Canada. The album is produced by
Markus Dravs, who had worked with the band on their previous album, 2007's
Neon Bible, and was engineered by
Marcus Paquin, who has also previously worked with the band. A track-by-track review ahead of
The Suburbs release by
The Quietus website said, "The progression is similar to the one
William Blake takes us through in
Songs of Innocence and of Experience that suggests forward momentum and maturity." The album was released with eight different covers. The first show announced was
Oxegen 2010 which took place in Ireland in July. The band announced that they would play songs from the new album in their headline performance at the
Reading and Leeds Festivals in August 2010, with Win Butler noting, "We're really looking forward to playing the new songs live... [it's] like an inventor emerging from his basement after a year's work." In July 2010, Arcade Fire announced they would be broadcasting their August 5 concert at Madison Square Garden live via YouTube. They later announced the video would be directed by
Terry Gilliam.
The Suburbs was released worldwide at the start of August 2010 to extensive critical acclaim comparable to
Funeral and
Neon Bible. During the 2010 tour, Arcade Fire gave a tribute to
Jay Reatard performing the cover of "Oh, It's Such a Shame". Win Butler confessed to Zane Lowe that the band wanted Jay Reatard to support the band on this tour, but he had died.
The Suburbs went on to debut at number one in the US (on the Billboard 200), selling 156,000 units in its first week. It was also number one in the UK and Canada. In August 2010, Arcade Fire and Google released an interactive music video, written and directed by
Chris Milk and produced by
B-Reel, which allows the viewer to enter the address where they grew up and the video is then "geopersonalised". This video utilizes the band's song "We Used to Wait" from
The Suburbs, and showcases capabilities of
HTML5 and Google's Chrome browser. On November 13, 2010, Arcade Fire made their second appearance on
Saturday Night Live, performing "We Used to Wait" and "
Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)". The album debuted at No. 1 on the
Irish Albums Chart, the
UK Albums Chart, the US
Billboard 200 chart, and the
Canadian Albums Chart. It won
Album of the Year at the
2011 Grammy Awards, Best International Album at the
2011 BRIT Awards, Album of the Year at the
2011 Juno Awards, and the 2011
Polaris Music Prize for best Canadian album. Two weeks after winning
Grammy's Album of the Year, the album jumped from No. 52 to No. 12 on the
Billboard 200, the album's highest ranking since August 2010. In a nod to the Butlers' maternal grandfather,
Alvino Rey, who was an amateur radio operator, the logo used by the band from this time was a variation of that used by the
American Radio Relay League. Also, when playing the single "
We Used to Wait" live, the background video screen features a radio exchange between Rey and a
Canadian operator having Call Sign VE3YV. The video also features many other amateur radio artifacts. Arcade Fire performed at the
53rd Grammy Awards in February 2011. The band was nominated for
Grammy Awards in three categories:
Album of the Year,
Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, and
Best Alternative Music Album (for
The Suburbs). Out of the three nominations, they won the Grammy for Album of the Year, their second time to be nominated for the award. At the
2011 BRIT Awards,
The Suburbs won Best International Album, and Arcade Fire won the Award for Best International Group. In March 2011, Arcade Fire was honoured at the
Juno Awards of 2011. They won Group of the Year and Songwriter of the Year for "
Ready to Start", "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)", and "We Used to Wait", all off
The Suburbs.
The Suburbs also won Album of the Year and Alternative Album of the Year. On April 19, 2011, it was announced that Arcade Fire would release a deluxe edition of their album
The Suburbs featuring the short film
Scenes from the Suburbs, by director
Spike Jonze, as well as two new tracks, "Culture War" and "Speaking in Tongues" featuring
David Byrne.
Scenes from the Suburbs, which debuted at the
Berlin International Film Festival 2011, has a running time of 30 minutes. The film screened at the
SXSW Film Festival 2011 and saw its online premiere on MUBI on June 27, 2011. Writing for the Canadian Press, Nick Patch called the film "a sci-fi puzzler that seems to blend the paranoia of
Terry Gilliam films with the nostalgia of classic
Steven Spielberg flicks." On June 16, the album was named as a longlisted nominee (one of 40) for the
2011 Polaris Music Prize. On July 6, the album was named as a shortlisted (one of 10) nominee for the 2011 award. On September 20, 2011, they were awarded the Polaris Prize. On May 19, 2012, Arcade Fire (minus members Will and Tim) made their third appearance on
Saturday Night Live, playing as a backup band for musical guest and host
Mick Jagger. The band performed "
The Last Time" with Jagger, and participated in
Kristen Wiig's farewell skit, playing "
She's a Rainbow" into "
Ruby Tuesday". The band wore
carrés rouges (red squares) to show support for the
2012 Quebec student protests. Arcade Fire recorded a song for
The Hunger Games soundtrack (
The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond), called "Abraham's Daughter". The song is featured in the movie's end credits. The soundtrack was released on March 20, 2012, debuting at number one on the
Billboard 200. It sold more than 175,000 copies in its first week according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's the first theatrical film soundtrack to top the chart since Michael Jackson's "This Is It" debuted at No. 1 on the list. It is also only the 16th soundtrack to debut at No. 1 in the history of the Billboard 200 chart (those soundtracks include film, television, and straight-to-video efforts). "We were interested in making music that would be more integral in the movie, just as a mental exercise," Butler, who co-wrote the song with Chassagne, explained. "And there's an anthem that runs throughout the books, the national anthem of the fascist Capitol. So as a thought experiment, we tried to write what that might sound like. It's like the Capitol's idea of itself, basically."
2013–2015: Reflektor Arcade Fire and
Mercury Records confirmed that they would release a fourth album in late 2013. In December 2012, the band's manager Scott Rodger confirmed that Arcade Fire was in the studio working with regular producer of the band
Markus Dravs and
James Murphy, frontman of
LCD Soundsystem. The official Arcade Fire pre-order website set the release date on October 28, 2013. The band announced on January 18, 2013, that they were selling the church they had been using as a studio due to a collapsed roof. Throughout 2013, the band worked on the album in several different recording studios – including Murphy's
DFA Records studio in
New York City. On June 22, 2013,
Rolling Stone reported that new material from the album would be released on September 9, 2013. Whilst working on the album, Arcade Fire and Owen Pallet wrote the
original score of
Spike Jonze's 2013 science-fiction romance film
Her. Arcade Fire also wrote the song "Supersymmetry" for the film, which would later appear on
Reflektor, as well as the melody for "Porno" which can be heard on the soundtrack. Will Butler and Pallett received a nomination for
Best Original Score at the
86th Academy Awards for the score. The score was not officially released to the public until 2021. Speculation emerged in August that the album would be named
Reflektor after images began circulating of street art using the name. These images were collected on an Instagram account and later uploads noted the date of September 9 and time of 9 P.M. Arcade Fire confirmed their connection to the campaign with a billboard put up in New York City on August 26, 2013. A week later, the band released a 15-second music clip on
Spotify titled "9pm 9/9" under the album name
Reflektor. English rock musician
David Bowie contributed to backing vocals on the title song, "
Reflektor" after praising the song's quality in fall 2013. In September 2013, Arcade Fire released a version of the 1980 hit single "
Games Without Frontiers" for the
Peter Gabriel tribute album ''
And I'll Scratch Yours. Upon its release, Reflektor
received positive reviews from music critics and had a successful commercial performance. The album was recognized as one of The 100 Best Albums of the Decade So Far, a list published by Pitchfork'' in August 2014. Arcade Fire were the musical guest on the 39th-season premiere of
Saturday Night Live on September 28, 2013. The episode drew six million viewers. They also appeared in a half hour special on
NBC,
Arcade Fire in Here Comes the Night Time, that aired immediately after
SNL. The special featured cameo appearances by
Ben Stiller,
Bono,
Bill Hader,
Zach Galifianakis,
Rainn Wilson,
Aziz Ansari,
Eric Wareheim, and
Michael Cera. The concert footage was filmed at the band's surprise September 9 appearance at Montreal's Club Salsathèque. Arcade Fire performed live at the
YouTube Music Awards on November 3, 2013. The performance featured an experimental "live video" directed by
Her writer and director
Spike Jonze, and actress
Greta Gerwig. The band was nominated for a
Satellite Award for Best Original Score for
Her. They were also nominated for a
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Music Score. The band headlined the 2014
Glastonbury Festival on June 27. At the
2014 Juno Awards,
Reflektor won Album of the Year and Alternative Album of the Year. The album was also a shortlisted nominee for the
2014 Polaris Music Prize. In 2015, Arcade Fire was the recipient of the International Achievement Award at the
SOCAN Awards held in Montreal. A documentary film about the making of the album, called
The Reflektor Tapes, was released on September 24, 2015, and was shown at the
2015 Toronto Film Festival. The following day, a deluxe edition of the album containing original recordings and five unreleased songs was released. The documentary was directed by Kahlil Joseph, winner of the 2013 Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Short Films.
2016–2019: Everything Now On May 25, 2016, Win Butler and Régine Chassagne performed a surprise set outside the
Louvre which included a new song. The pair were invited by the French street artist
JR to DJ at the launch of his new exhibition titled
JR Au Louvre, but the two decided to set up drums and keyboards in the Tuileries gardens. On June 17, Will Butler hosted a
Reddit AMA, where he answered fan questions about the next Arcade Fire album. He stated that the new record might be released in spring 2017 and that the band had 'no definite schedule though. It'll be done when it's done.' On July 5, the band played their first complete full-band concert in two years in Barcelona, Spain as a warm up for their upcoming summer festival dates in Canada, Portugal, Spain and USA. On July 19, Tim Kingsbury told CBC that the band's upcoming fifth album would be out in 2017. On January 19, 2017, the band released a new single to coincide with
Donald Trump's
presidential inauguration entitled "I Give You Power". The song featured guest vocals from singer
Mavis Staples. The proceeds were donated to the
American Civil Liberties Union. Arcade Fire signed a two album recording contract with
Columbia Records in May 2017. On May 31, the band released a new single "
Everything Now" on a limited edition 12" vinyl at the
Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona. In July 2017, "Everything Now" became Arcade Fire's first single to reach number one on a
Billboard chart, reaching number one on the Adult Alternative Songs airplay chart. In October 2017, long-time manager Scott Rodger parted ways with the band. After releasing two teasers on their social media pages a few days before, on March 12, 2018, the band announced a short film, directed by
David Wilson called "Money + Love", containing two of their songs "
Put Your Money On Me" and "
We Don't Deserve Love", and being released on March 15. On March 17, Arcade Fire were featured as the musical guest on
Saturday Night Live for a fifth time, performing "
Creature Comfort" and "
Put Your Money On Me". For the 2019 Disney film,
Dumbo, Arcade Fire performs an end-credits version of "Baby Mine", by Frank Churchill and Ned Washington, which was released as a single on March 11, 2019.
2020–2024: We On October 21, 2020, Butler was interviewed for the Broken Record podcast, where he commented about Arcade Fire's sixth album. The band had been writing for a year before the
COVID-19 lockdown. During lockdown, Butler kept working and wrote "two or three albums". In April 2020, Butler shared some snippets of new material in the social networks. On April 14, 2021, the band released a 45-minute instrumental piece, entitled "Memories of the Age of Anxiety" on the meditation application
Headspace. In March 2022, fans received postcards marked with the band's logo; the postcards included the note "We missed you", musical notations, as well as an image of an eye with the word "Unsubscribe" written below. Those same images began to appear in signage around London as well as on the band's social media pages, indicating the earliest signs of a new album. On March 14, the band announced a new song titled "The Lightning I, II" would be released on March 17. That same day, the band played a concert benefiting the Plus 1
Ukraine relief fund at the Toulouse Theatre in
New Orleans, marking their first full-band performance in over two years. They also performed at
Bowery Ballroom in
New York City on March 18 and 19, benefitting the same organization. Tickets for all three shows were sold on a "pay what you can" basis. On March 17, 2022, Arcade Fire announced that the album would be titled
We and be released on May 6, 2022. Later that week, Will Butler announced he had amicably left the band in 2021 shortly after the completion of
We. Following the release of
We on May 6, 2022, Arcade Fire announced the "WE" Tour, the group's first world tour since 2018, starting in August 2022. They again appeared on
Saturday Night Live on May 7, 2022, playing "Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)", "The Lightning I, II", and "End of The Empire II" over the closing credits. They ended the Mother's Day performance with Win Butler stating "A woman's right to choose forever and ever and ever, amen." On August 27, 2022, Win Butler was accused by four people of several instances of sexual misconduct between 2016 and 2020, including
sexual assault, unwanted explicit texts, and pursuing relationships with younger fans ranging in age from 18 to 23. Butler and Chassagne denied the allegations and said all the encounters had been consensual. A few days later, Canadian artist
Feist announced that she and her band would be dropping out as the opening act of the European leg of the "WE" Tour due to the allegations, having donated proceeds from the two shows she had already played to a local women's aid organization in
Dublin.
Beck also dropped out as the opening act of the tour's American leg later that year. In November 2022, Arcade Fire were announced as headliners for the 2023 editions of the Kalorama festival in
Lisbon and the Cala Mijas festival in
Málaga. In April 2023, Arcade Fire were added to
Pharrell Williams' curated festival Something in the Water, held in
Virginia Beach. In June 2023, Arcade Fire was announced as a Friday headliner for
Mexico City's
Corona Capital festival in November. Arcade Fire earned headlining slots on 2024 festivals, including all South American
Lollapalooza editions,
Shaky Knees in
Atlanta and
Bilbao BBK Live in
Bilbao, Spain.
2025–present: Pink Elephant In March 2025, members of Arcade Fire performed at Luck Reunion, outside of Austin, where they debuted new songs from their forthcoming album. These tracks included "Pink Elephant", "Ride or Die", and "Year of the Snake". On April 4, the band published a teaser video clip on their social media accounts, and they released a
social network mobile app brand-named Trust. In the app, the band published video clips including a song "Cars and Telephones". On April 7, at the end of the radio mix in the Trust app, Butler and Chassagne announced the new album
Pink Elephant to be released on May 9. The band played live previews of the full album on a promotional tour titled 'Don't Think About Pink Elephant'; the tour commenced with nine North American shows beginning April 22 in Mexico City, and concluded on May 14 with a one-off show in London. Prior to the first show, the band announced that Parry would be absent from the tour whilst he and his wife prepared for the birth of their first child. On May 10, the band were the musical guests on
Saturday Night Live for the seventh time in their career, performing "Year of the Snake" and "Pink Elephant" on the penultimate episode of its
fiftieth season. The episode drew in 4.215 million domestic viewers. ==Activism==