The first thought I had when I stepped out of Arctic Monkeys’ concert at Liverpool Echo Arena on the 13/11/09 was, “They didn’t play ‘Fake Tales of San Francisco’ and ‘Mardy Bum’.” I comforted myself by saying a) I got a great seat, b) I had fun, c) they might play a different set in Sheffield.
24 hours after Liverpool, I was at Sheffield Arena watching an identical show. How heart breaking. The consolations were my two awesome and dashing dates, and Alex and co. played a wee bit of ‘Mardy Bum’ in the middle of ‘Fluorescent Adolescent.’ No extra songs or banters or even love for the Sheffield fans a.k.a. the home crowd. No ‘Fake Tales’, and by then I realised they didn’t play another favourite song of mine, ‘A Certain Romance’ .
Pretty obvious that I’m a fan of their debut album, isn’t it? Anyway, that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy their shows, or I’m jumping off the fanwagon now. I just feel that both shows lack punch, or whatever fun I saw in the ‘Live at Apollo’ DVD (in which they played all the missing songs). Yes, yes, I know, they only had two albums when they made that DVD and now they have three, they obviously need to kick out some old songs to fit in new ones, but playing 3/4 of Humbug wasn’t the best solution.
I’m not giving up on Arctic Monkeys just yet. As of the third album Alex still writes great lyrics, the band still makes good music and as seen at both concerts, drummer Matt is indeed an agile beast. After all, I did see them twice, didn’t I? And I might just have to catch as many shows as I can until I get to see my favourite songs performed live, or maybe until they can get the setlist balanced up right.
Liverpool and Sheffield set list: Dance Little Liar, Brainstorm, This House is a Circus, Still Take You Home, I Bet You Look on the Dancefloor, Sketchead, My Propeller, Crying Lightning, Dangerous Animals, The View from the Afternoon, Cornerstone, If You were There, Beware, Pretty Visitors, The Jeweller’s Hands, Do Me a Favour, When the Sun Goes Down, Secret Door, Fluorescent Adolescent, Mardy Bum*, 505.
*only for Sheffield.
Ramble Scramble 