After hearing about all the trouble people had even getting onto the Mall for Obama’s speech on Tuesday, I was starting to feel a little better about watching the whole thing from my comfy couch, instead of, you know, going back in time two years and quitting my job and volunteering for the campaign so that I could have been a part of the festivities. But then I found out about this: playing the Obama Staff Ball on Tuesday night was Arcade Fire, the Montreal combo whose raw, ecstatic 2005 Coachella performance brought me to actual tears. Like Obama getting inaugurated wasn’t enough to start up the waterworks, ballgoers were treated to the Fire doing a mandolin-led cover of Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.,” which you can watch above thanks to Stereogum, but only if you have some Kleenex nearby. If you’re still wondering what the heck I’m talking about with all this Arcade Fire blah-dee-blah, watch a clip of that Coachella performance after the jump. Sniff, I just have something in my eye…
