Experiencing The Arcade Fire solely through their widely revered debut disc, Funeral, it's possible to have a few qualms about jumping on the crowded bandwagon.

One might, for instance, detect a hint of pretension in the liner notes structured as a funeral program, the themed and numbered songs (Neighbourhoods 1-4), and the periodic insertion of French lyrics. Or mistake singer/guitarist Win Butler's obvious affinity for David Byrne for evidence that the Montreal-based collective is a little too heavy on the Talking Heads influence. Or conclude that, elaborate instrumentation notwithstanding, the band is really just a husband-wife project between Butler and Regine Chassagne, who joins him in songwriting and vocal duties. Or determine that, however musically impressive, these folks are a tad inaccessible and aloof.

But within moments of the entire nine-piece ensemble - two more than the studio septet, including opening act Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett joining Sarah Neufeld on violin - taking the stage Tuesday night for the first of three sold-out shows at Toronto's Danforth Music Hall, all such misconceptions were summarily dismissed.

Put it this way: Five minutes into the show, as the band followed set opener Wake Up with Neighbourhood #2 (Laika), several members had swapped instruments, an accordion - an instrument that no musician preoccupied with maintaining a vestige of cool would ever lay a hand on - had made its first appearance, and keyboardist/percussionist/ whatever-else-they-throw-at-him Richard Reed Parry was pounding away on a motorcycle helmet.

Watching The Arcade Fire on stage, it would be impossible to guess that most of their material is drawn from an album inspired heavily by the death of several family members. Mugging, play-acting and swapping roles at a frenetic pace, they're so exuberant that even a stately venue filled to the rafters with notoriously passive Torontonians couldn't have felt more alive.

Butler, a towering Texan-cum-Montrealer who clearly savours every moment on stage, is an endearing personality, even when a slightly sub-standard sound mix isn't doing his vocals any favours. (It also never hurts to inform a Canadian audience that you've received your permanent resident status.) But it's the controlled chaos around him that makes The Arcade Fire so unapologetically, inescapably charming.

This is a band that, having been on the road for the better part of the past couple of years, somehow manages to give the impression that every song is an adventure, as though they're playing with each other for the first time.

But despite the feeling that it's all being invented on the spot, they've clearly worked diligently to hone their sound. Funeral is not an easy album to play live, and rather than stripping it down they've actually ramped up the orchestral arrangements.

In some ways, The Arcade Fire are consummate crowd-pleasers: After cooling things down with a couple of covers (including an offering from Terry Gilliam's Brazil), the band built toward a crescendo before closing the main set with the frenzied back-to-back renditions of singles Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out) and Rebellion (Lies). But they also manage to look, sound and act unlike anything else out there on the indie scene - an unfortunate state of affairs for fellow Montrealers Wolf Parade, who followed Final Fantasy with a straightforward art-rock set that might otherwise have earned raves but wound up completely overshadowed.

Over the winter, when tickets for this week's shows went on sale, there was considerable local grumbling as to whether the seated venue and relatively steep price tag somehow compromised The Arcade Fire's indie cred. In hindsight, it all looks a little absurd - and not just because all the proceeds are going toward a hospital in Chassagne's Haitian homeland.

If indie is supposed to be about stepping out of the mainstream, unencumbered by industry expectations and placing a premium on giving us something fresh and exciting rather than following a surefire commercial formula (as good a definition as any), it's hard to imagine what The Arcade Fire should be doing differently. And it's equally hard to imagine that there's anyone else out there capable of doing what they're doing at the Music Hall this week - let alone doing it as well.