BERKELEY, Calif.--In the school of indie rock, Arcade Fire is the drama club.

At Berkeley's Greek Theatre on Saturday night, the 10-piece outfit from Montreal burned through a 17-song set that was full of theatrics, proving that their reputation as North America's "next big thing" is well deserved. The show was the last on the current leg of their tour before they head off to Europe for a summer of festivals, and the band seemed energized to go out with a bang.

Even the Greek Theatre's expansive stage seemed a bit cramped for the double-digit band members, which includes a pair of violin players and a pair of horn players on the right flank, a mess of instruments--both traditional and not so much (hurdy gurdy, anyone?)--crowding the center, and an impressive organ straight out of the Crusades dominating the left.

The band got off to a rip-roaring start with three tunes from Neon Bible, the band's critically lauded second full-length album. "Keep the Car Running" was dominated by lanky frontman Win Butler--the father figure of the Arcade family--strumming a mandolin. "Black Mirror" was a darker song centered around a droning piano riff and a few count-offs in French, and "No Cars Go" was punctuated by the band's intermittent shouts of "Hey!" and creepy black-and-red projections on the velvet-curtain backdrop.

But it wasn't until the band tore into "Haiti" that its extravagant charm was on full display. The stage became a playground as band members ran to and fro, threw things back and forth at each other, and danced around like no one was watching. It was controlled chaos, and it was absolutely delightful. Though they've been compared to U2 in the media recently, a more appropriate comparison is to The Talking Heads--another unconventional band with a powerful sound and imposingly brilliant frontman in David Byrne.

That chaos remained for much of the rest of the set, with members jumping from instrument to instrument, tossing drums into the air (and fortunately, catching them), or leaning over the crowd, instigating a frenzy. The most harrowing moments came when members chased each other around the stage in a game of cat-and-mouse, with the chasee climbing scaffolding on the side of the stage some 50 feet in the air, where he banged a drumstick against the metal support furiously. Recognizing a "can't miss" moment, a cameraman documenting the performance climbed up alongside him, catching the action from 30 feet in the air.

Acrophobic moments aside, Arcade Fire seemed incredibly comfortable on stage, particularly when Butler talked about the time he was almost arrested in Berkeley for a scuffle he got into when trying to play some pick-up basketball and his Northern California-versus-Southern California movie script pitch. It was a stark contrast from the more serious set they played just one week before at the Sasquatch Music Festival in Washington.

As a treat for the hardcore Arcade Fire fans, Butler announced they would be playing "a song that we haven't played in a few years. This one is called 'Headlights Look Like Diamonds.'" Unlike the rest of the set, this track is from their rare self-titled EP (save for "No Cars Go," which was repurposed for Neon Bible) and it was also the band at its rawest--a refreshing change from the rest of the incredibly polished show.

But as with "Haiti," the band exploded off the stage when it played songs from its debut album, the excellent Funeral. "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)," "Neighborhood #2 (Laika)," and "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" are typical of Arcade Fire's anthemic rock sound, with the set's closer, "Rebellion (Lies)" being the band's definitive song and the highlight of the show. The band walked off the stage to the crowd repeatedly chanting the chorus, and returned to the stage to the same sound before playing a "Rebellion" reprise and finally finishing with the campfire sing-along "Wake Up."

Though Arcade Fire definitely put a little extra flair in their shows, none of it really seemed contrived or out of place. They are, after all, the next great North American band. You'd be a little excited, too.