Arcade Fire getting people to dress up at gigs: a bad idea or not?

Sounds absurd doesn't it? You can kind of see that its a good idea though. A lot of people would argue that it would give the gig more of an atmosphere. That's totally true, imagine a load of fans in masks and costumes all having an awesome time to some loud music. Sounds like that bit out of Laz Buhrmann's Romeo and Juliet (1996) where there having that huge party, but without transvestites though possibly? I don't know if transvestites go to Arcade Fire gigs because I've never been to one.

"Oh hey it's cool if you don't wanna wear a costume to our shows" is what they would be saying if they weren't a picture.

You could argue that it is a bit pretentious of the band to ask people to do this. I mean the fans are already forking out money for the gig tickets so its not great that the band are asking them to shovel out even more money for a costume there probably only going to wear once. However, the band have said that's "its not mandatory" for fans to wear the costumes so it sounds like the band are actually quite laid back about the whole situation. If this is the case, it would be wrong to call the band pretentious.

Do whatever you like if you go to an Arcade Fire gig. Wear the costume or don't wear the costume. Personally, I wouldn't wear the costume because I'd look silly if I had to use public transport on the way to the gig but I can totally see why some people would want to wear the costumes and that's fair enough. I guess this is one of those situations that your either in favour of or your not.