Arcade Fire getting heat for instituting dress code at arena shows

TORONTO – Canadian rock band Arcade Fire is getting heat for instituting a dress code for its upcoming North American arena tour.

On the Ticketmaster pages hawking seats for the Montreal group’s upcoming tour, a note at the top of the page reads: “Please wear formal attire or costume.”

The tour begins March 6 in Louisville and stops in Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg before wrapping in Montreal on August 30.

The band had made similar sartorial demands before a show in Montreal in September and in London earlier this month, when NME reported that frontman Win Butler told the crowd: “To anyone who felt uncomfortable dressing up — I’m not sorry.”

The demand is garnering some backlash, with online cultural magazine Slate writing that the move is “presumptuous” and “an attempt to reinforce the band’s status as capital-A Artists.”

Arcade Fire topped charts in Canada and the U.S. with its double-disc opus “Reflektor,” released in October. Their previous album, “The Suburbs,” also debuted at No. 1 before winning album of the year honours at the Grammys and Juno Awards.