Arcade Fire Cover the Smiths’ “London” in London

Arcade Fire have continued their streak of canny cover songs as they’ve taken the Reflektor tour overseas. On Saturday night, for the encore of their second show at the Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre in London, the band covered the Smiths’ “London.” The show was broadcast on XFM, as Stereogum notes, and you can listen to a radio rip of their cover below.

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The hard-driving song (the B-side single to 1987’s “Shoplifters of the World Unite,” compiled on Louder Than Bombs) featured Will Butler on vocals. For the opening act, the band was supported by noted Arcade Fire fan Lorde, who recently told Rolling Stone, “They’ve been my favorite band since a guy who was kind of mean and kind of my friend put The Suburbs on my computer one day after school. It was a superhot day; my hair was wet from the pool. I was 13. I still remember that day.” 

For their first show at Earl’s Court the previous night, Arcade Fire was joined onstage by Echo and the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch, who teamed up with them for a cover of the Liverpool band’s 1983 single “The Cutter.”

Arcade Fire’s next stop is in Landgraaf, Netherlands on Monday. They’ll continue touring in Europe through the rest of the month and will make one stop in Japan before bringing the Reflektor tour back to North America at the end of July.