Arcade Fire are apparently struggling to fill venues on their current arena tour

According to reports in North America, Arcade Fire are struggling to even half fill some venues on their current North American tour, with "only" 4000-6000 attendees at shows in Quebec City, Tampa, Florida, and Austin, Texas. The venues in these cities have capacities between approximately 10,000-20,000, with the upper levels shut off completely for some shows, and discounted tickets being made available as the shows creep nearer.

Is some of this down to space being taken up by their ambitious boxing ring-style stage? Maybe; not all of it though, by the sounds of things.

It's not all barren wastelands at Arcade Fire shows, with some hitting dizzying numbers - in Vancouver frontman Win Butler told a crowd of 15,000(ish): "We've played cities three times as big with half as many people, so this is really a thing of beauty for us..."

In related news, the Canadian indie veterans last month "amicably" parted with their longtime manager Scott Rodger.