Michael Buckner, Getty Images
Arcade Fire's Texas-raised Win and Will Butler sojourned back to their native state to deliver a lecture called "Arcade Fire: Hope, Haiti & Service" at the University of Texas. The duo was joined by Win's wife and bandmate Regine Chassagne and Arcade Fire violinist Marika Anthony-Shaw to speak about their relationship with the Haitian healthcare charity Partners in Health before performing two acoustic renditions of their songs 'Haiti' and 'Wake Up.'
Their charitable involvement with the country stems from Chassagne's Haitian roots. "I started thinking, how can I ignore this petition and that petition, how is this more important than this?" she said. "Well my family is Haiti, and Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, so hmm, that was pretty high on my list."
Over the past four years, the band has donated $500,000 to Partners in Haiti and reserve $1 of every ticket they sell for the cause. "In the [United] States and Canada, there's a basic attitude that you should be able to do things yourself," Win explained. "You take for granted all the infrastructure we have. When you see a place that has no government or money for basic necessities, you know people shouldn't die from not being able to get a tetanus shot in 2012."
Check out their performance of 'Haiti' and 'Wake Up' below.
Watch Arcade Fire Perform at the University of Texas
