LEHI - In the three years since they released their debut album and hit the road, the Arcade Fire have earned a reputation as a killer live act. But despite prolific touring that's taken them to Brazil, Japan, Europe and back and forth across North America, the band had never played Utah until Wednesday.

They didn't disappoint.

The Montreal indie darlings brought their barnstorming rock orchestra to Thanksgiving Point, where they overcame an early-autumn chill and a last-minute venue change with a brilliant set that delighted the thousand or so fans crowding a makeshift lawn stage.

The Arcade Fire is touring behind its second album, "Neon Bible," a sin-and-salvation concept that was illustrated by onstage video projections of neon-lit books. Throughout the night the musical collective blended retro stylings with modern technology to give their show a theatrical quality. Band members wore semiformal black clothes - suspenders for the men, cocktail dresses for the women - while four circular video screens showed live footage of the concert in grainy black and white, reinforcing a period feel.

Thanks to a sprawling lineup of 10 musicians, the Arcade Fire deftly replicated the grandiose sound and instrumental flourishes that grace "Neon Bible" and its equally superb predecessor, "Funeral." And what instruments! How many rock acts tour with two violinists, a dulcimer, an organ, a French horn and a hurdy gurdy, a stringed wooden box that must be cranked by hand?

Chief vocalist Win Butler, who sounds a little like David Byrne's, invested each song with emotion and urgency, from the plaintive "Intervention" to the haunting "My Body is a Cage" to encore "Old Flame," an older song the band rarely plays. Drummer Jeremy Gara gave the upbeat songs a nimble kick, from the propulsive "No Cars Go" to the skittering "Power Out" to the anthemic, shout-along final encore of "Wake Up."

Musicians roamed from instrument to instrument during the energetic 90-minute set. In one stretch co-singer Régine Chassagne, a Bjork sound-alike, moved from accordion to lead vocals to piano to drums. Band members didn't just play their instruments; they attacked them with gleeful abandon. I'm thinking of the guy leaping about the stage while clanging a pair of cymbals, to cite just one example.

In this way, the band showcased a musicianship and a freewheeling spirit that made them sound polished and loose at the same time. Video images, neon props and the band members' animated stage gestures, no doubt honed through their many massive festival gigs, made the Arcade Fire a feast for the eyes as well as the ears.

"It's nice to finally be here," Butler told the enthusiastic crowd. Oh, yes. Let's hope he and his bandmates don't wait three years to come back.

griggs@sltrib.com

Hot stuff

* WHERE: Thanksgiving Point, Lehi

* WHEN: Wednesday.

* BOTTOM LINE: In their first visit to Utah, the Montreal-based indie band staged a visual and aural feast.

* PHOTO GALLERY: At www.sltrib.com/themix.