(VIDEO) The Arcade Fire @ Rivoli, Toronto, 2003

Many of us are looking forward to The Arcade Fire's show at Olympic Island this weekend. They just played a show at Madison Square Gardens in NYC with a Terry Gilliam-directed live stream to YouTube - some good quality video has surfaced over at Vimeo. But just prior to that, one of the band's earliest performances caught to video filmed by a friend of the The Arcade Fire's Richard Parry surfaced on Vimeo. It was filmed at the Rivoli in Toronto in 2003; I'm not sure which month in 2003 the performance is from but according to Us Kids Know, they played the Rivoli in 2003 twice, first in July and then in September. What's so intriguing for me about the video is that it captures the band at a stage in their career that's not wholly different from how they are now, except for maybe their haircuts. It's cool to see the video also because, it was also 2003 that I'd first saw The Arcade Fire live when a few friends and I went to Pop Montreal and saw them play Club Soda. If not blown away, I was deeply impressed by them and they were the opening band that night. So check out their performance at the Rivoli in 2003, with the band performing "Wake Up", "No Cars Go" and "Old Flame":

ARCADE FIRE Live 2003 from Bennett on Vimeo.