Photo: WENN / Arcade Fire Tube Twitter
Arcade Fire played a secret show at the Breakglass Studios in Montreal on Saturday (1 December), to 100 people.
The band used the intimate show, which they played under the name Les Identiks, to preview their new material to their fans. The concert was a 'road-test' of sorts, in order to see which songs could be used on their next album.
Arcade Fire banned the use of recording devices such as cameras and mobile phones, in order to keep the songs under wraps - although it was apparently filmed by the band's team. Reviews and even talking too much about the concert were both reportedly prohibited as well.
According to fansite Arcade Fire Tube, eight songs were played and the new songs were "generally described as fun, dance-y and groovy".
They wrote on Twitter, "New songs: Heavy use of percussion/rhythm section / Only 1 slow song / 1 punk rock-ish song / A 7-8 minute song opened the show.
"New songs (cont.): Sounded like close to finished versions. "Be prepared for another really good album!""
A photo of what the Broken Glass studios looked like during the gig
The band's drummer, Jeremy Gara, spoke about the band's upcoming album in October to Ottawa radio station CKCU 93.1.
He told the station, "Now we're in the studio pretty much full-time just doing what we do. And we kind of shut the door. We haven't really gone out and done anything in over a year now. We haven't done photos or interviews or anything. We're just working on music and growing beards and living at home a lot and going out to dinner together.
"We are under no pressure from record labels or management or whatever to do anything on any sort of schedule. We're just working. We have no deadlines. It's kind of coming along."
The album is expected to be released in 2013.
Check out 'Crucified Again' below, an unreleased song that the band played in Haiti earlier this year:
The big albums of 2013: Daft Punk, Depeche Mode, Arcade Fire and more
