Kelefah Sanneh on The Arcade Fire

And they went. A single guitar chord oozed through the speakers, and four of Mr. Butler's band mates joined him at the front of the stage, singing a wordless, full-throated overture while the drummer behind them kept time. Then the crashing subsided and Mr. Butler started to sing, his voice wild and shaky with half-swallowed terror. "Somethin' filled up my heart with nothin', someone told me not to cry," he began, with a violin line swelling and deflating behind him. And a crowd full of ecstatic fans and converts braced itself for the next crash.