Arcade Fire’s surprise New York City shows raised over $100k for the people of Ukraine

Arcade Fire debuting new song ‘Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)’ at Coachella 2022 – check it out below.The band played a secret set at the Californian festival on Friday (April 15) ahead of the release of new album ‘WE’, which is due out next month. Over the last few weeks they’ve made their live comebacks with gigs in New York, New Orleans and elsewhere.The hour-long set saw the band open with recent single ‘The Lightning I, II’ before playing hits from their five studio albums to date including ‘Wake Up’, ‘Rebellion (Lies)’ and ‘Everything Now’.Before playing their new song, ‘Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)’, which was teased last week, frontman Win Butler dedicated the track to his son.

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Bethenny Frankel is feeling “unstoppable” after she recently surpassed her $100 million goal in Ukranian relief efforts. Ahead of reaching her milestone, the Skinnygirl founder spoke EXCLUSIVELY with HollywoodLife and revealed how she feels about her successful BStrong Foundation helping those in need as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues the country’s assaults on Ukraine.

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Jonathan Cohen Arcade Fire raised more than $100,000 for PLUS1’s Ukraine Relief Fund through five surprise club shows — one in New Orleans and four in New York — in the course of a week, the group announced on Instagram.A post shared by Arcade Fire (@arcadefire)Wristbands for the gigs at New Orleans’ Toulouse Theatre (March 14) and New York’s Bowery Ballroom (March 18-21) were distributed at random locations throughout both cities, and fans were invited to pay whatever they could afford for entry. They represented Arcade Fire’s first full live shows since February 2020, ahead of the May 6 release of their new Columbia album, “We.”At them, the group debuted five songs from the album, including the two-part first single “The Lightning,” “Age of Anxiety I” and its companion “Age of Anxiety II (Rabbit Hole)” and “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid).”The group’s first show in New York culminated with the entire band and much of the audience marching out onto Delancey Street in front of the Bowery Ballroom, singing the final song of the set — and the song that introduced them to most of the world — “Wake Up,” the opening track from their 2004 debut album, “Funeral.” Arcade Fire brought arena spectacle to their surprise Bowery Ballroom show on Friday night that spilled out onto the street and into the subway.

NEW YORK -- New York City's mayor will announce Thursday that he’s exempting athletes and performers from the city’s vaccine mandate for private workers, a move that will allow Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving to play home games and unvaccinated baseball players to take the field when their season begins.Mayor Eric Adams will make the announcement Thursday morning and it will be effective immediately, according to a person familiar with the upcoming announcement who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.The city’s sweeping vaccine mandate for workers will still apply to people with other types of jobs, including government employees.Adams had said he felt the vaccine rule was unfair when it came to athletes and performers because a loophole in the measure, imposed under his predecessor, allowed visiting players and performers who don’t work in New York to still play or perform even if they are unvaccinated.Irving, a vaccine holdout, had been among the most high-profile people impacted.

New York Daily News outlining her history of anti-gay rhetoric, a spokesperson for the mayor announced he was rescinding the appointment, saying the administration had been unaware of Barrett-Layne’s past writings expressing anti-LGBTQ sentiments.As reported by the Daily News, in a 2013 book, Challenging Your Disappointments, Barrett-Layne placed same-sex relationships in the same category of “sin” as pedophilia and other crimes when discussing “temptations” facing Christian leaders and their followers.“Leaders struggle with the same temptations of drugs, alcohol, homosexuality, fornication, adultery, pedophilia, stealing, lying, envy, covetousness, and every other sin that the congregation struggle with,” she wrote. In that same book, Barrett-Layne raised concerns about the prevalence of homosexuality among incarcerated people, writing: “They live in the grip of fornicating homosexual lifestyles.”In another book from 2004, When Your Mess Becomes the Message, Barrett-Layne claimed her 3-year-old daughter told her “she was a boy” after being present for a counseling session Barrett-Layne gave to a lesbian woman. She wrote that she and her husband “began to militantly and violently pray for, with, and over our daughter.”“We prayed against every spirit that was not of God, including the spirit of homosexuality,” she wrote.

Arcade Fire and David Byrne covered Plastic Ono Band‘s protest song ‘Give Peace A Chance’ at the final night of four Ukraine benefit gigs in New York City.The Canadian band were joined by the legendary soloist and former Talking Heads frontman for the rendition of John Lennon and Plastic Ono Band’s 1969 single last night (March 21) at Bowery Ballroom.The performance wrapped Arcade Fire’s stint at the NYC venue that has raised money for the Plus1 Ukraine Relief Fund. Initially, the band announced a last-minute show at the Ballroom on Friday (March 18), saying that attendees could pay what they could afford.But more spontaneous pay-what-you-feel shows followed over the weekend into last night’s gig, at which Byrne made a special appearance as well as actor Mike Myers.A post shared by instatam (@tammietam)Myers made a political speech ahead of the encore, which saw Arcade Fire play ‘Wake Up’ and the unreleased ‘Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)’ from their forthcoming album ‘WE‘.“You can have the government you want, but once you lose democracy, you are fucked.

Arcade Fire have announced a last minute concert in New York tonight (March 18) to help victims in Ukraine.The band took to Instagram today to confirm they are playing a benefit show at the Bowery Ballroom – watch the announcement clip below.In the post, frontman Win Butler and band member Richard Reed Parry can be seen stapling posters for the show on a message board.“Hey New York, we’re gonna play a show tonight, if you guys wanna come,” says frontman Win Butler. “It’s a benefit gig for Ukraine at the Bowery Ballroom.”A post shared by Arcade Fire (@arcadefire)A caption on the clip also says “pay what u can” but no further information on how to purchase the tickets has been posted.It comes after the band played a benefit concert for Ukraine in New Orleans earlier this week.That show saw Arcade Fire play a number of new tracks including their single ‘The Lightning, I, II’, ‘Age of Anxiety’, and ‘Rabbit Hole’.All proceeds from that “pay-what-you-can” gig went to benefit the Plus1 Ukraine relief fund, which is supporting Ukrainian people through non-profits providing humanitarian aid as Russia’s invasion of the country continues.Meanwhile, the band unveiled details of their new album ‘WE’ yesterday (March 17).Speaking about their sixth studio LP, Butler said creating it was “the longest we’ve ever spent writing, uninterrupted, probably ever.”Described as a “concise 40 minute epic” in a statement, it contains seven songs and is “as much about the forces that threaten to pull us away from the people we love, as it is inspired by the urgent need to overcome them”, according to a press release.