Kicking off the first leg of their tour the Arctic Monkeys were greeted with loud screams from the crowd. They opened with ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ from their latest album AM. Alex Turner brandished his guitar as they swiftly moved on to play ‘Brianstorm’; needless to say the crowd went wild – which set the scene for the whole night.
Arctic Monkeys now wield quite the back catalogue with five albums under their belt and they played songs which spanned their entire career to date – pleasing old fans and new. Stand out tracks included ‘Teddy Picker’, ‘Dancing Shoes’ and even ‘Cornerstone’ was rolled out to the crowd.
The Arctic Monkeys played two new songs, ‘Arabella’ and ‘Pretty Visitors’, and these were sung by Turner unaided by his guitar. Although the vocals were hard to hear over the mass screams (mainly from female fans in the crowd – quite a change from when the Arctic Monkeys started). Of course Arctic Monkeys couldn’t perform without playing ‘Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor’. Cue the mosh pit, wild singing and more screams from the fans. As the confetti rained down on the crowd the Arctics exited the stage as they finished playing ‘Knee Socks’. But, of course, we all know there has to be an encore!
Turner returned to the stage for the encore with an acoustic guitar for the iconic ‘Mardy Bum’, swiftly followed by their upcoming single ‘One for the Road’. Finishing off the night the Arctic Monkeys sang ‘R U Mine’, with Matt Helders looking exhausted on the drums as he furiously tried to keep up with the rest of the band.
Although many tracks hadn’t been on the set list such as ‘505′ or ‘When The Sun Goes Down’ (which would have been an epic closing to the night) the Arctics must be given credit for a superb night.
