Arcade Fire in Concert at Stage AE; Mountain Playhouse Staging ‘Million Dollar Quartet’ (Tues., 710/18)

1) Early in their respective careers, the Rolling Stones played West View Park’s Danceland, and U2 played the Decade in Oakland. Similarly, Arcade Fire performed at the Rex Theatre in June 2004, less than three months before the release of their debut studio album, Funeral. They opened for the Unicorns; both acts were from Montreal. Almost 10 years passed before Arcade Fire visited Pittsburgh again. They headlined at Consol Energy Center, and like those aforementioned rockers, had become a great live act. (Some of the band’s members even backed Mick Jagger on “Saturday Night Live” in 2012.) They also won an Album of the Year Grammy for The Suburbs in 2011. Their sound draws from David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen, but they incorporate other genres, like Haitian rara, to create their own form of arena rock. This time, Pittsburghers needed to wait only four years for their return. They headline an outdoor show at Stage AE. Their latest release is 2017’s Everything Now. Hamilton Leithauser, frontman of The Walkmen, opens. Doors open 5:30 p.m. 400 North Shore Dr., North Shore. (CM)

Arcade Fire performing in 2014. Photo: Andreas Meixensperger and Wikipedia.

Elvis back when: looking like a million.

2) The musical Million Dollar Quartet is set in the 1950s, when a million dollars was a lot, so ignore the fact that today it won’t buy a decent backup quarterback. The show dramatizes a day considered legendary in the annals of rock and country music. On December 4, 1956, four rather notable persons happened to show up at Sun Record Studios in Memphis: Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins. They met; they jammed. Tapes of the impromptu session, lost for years, were eventually found and formed a series of albums. The stage musical (with book by Floyd Mutrux and Colin Escott) followed in 2006. Million Dollar Quartet fictionally re-creates the meeting and interaction of the four greats. It also fictionalizes much of the music they made together. Whereas the tapes caught them harmonizing mostly on country and gospel songs, the musical is heavy on jukebox hits of the period: “Hound Dog” by Presley, Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes,” Lewis’ “Great Balls of Fire,” etc. But hey, this isn’t history class; it’s show time. Mountain Playhouse presents Million Dollar Quartet. 7 p.m. Performances continue through July 29. 7690 Somerset Pike, Jennerstown. (MV)

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