Arctic Monkeys

[Stretlow]

My daughter loves them and had never seen them before. We got in the front pen and it was absolutely superb. Really surprised at reviews today

Daughter had smile from ear to ear.

 

[cerv]

Don’t get the fuss here. I saw them at Emirates on Sunday and thought they were superb (first time I’d see them live). And I don’t count myself as some die hard fan at all. Alex is a totally captivating performer in my eyes. f**k this you’ve gotta have banter between songs biz. He’s a f**king rock star doing his thing. I (and person I was with) enjoyed last Sunday so much we vowed to see them again last night and did not regret the decision at all. Enjoyed the more recent stuff live than on record too, maybe because there’s less phones in the air and you can soak it in a bit more.

[charlierc]

1 hour ago, Stretlow said:

My daughter loves them and had never seen them before. We got in the front pen and it was absolutely superb. Really surprised at reviews today

Daughter had smile from ear to ear.

Hey if it was enjoyable down the front, that's a good thing. Maybe I needed to be there to get into it to the max.

[charlierc]

2 hours ago, Furq said:

Another nail in the coffin of guitar bands as headliners?

All eyes on GnR...

Would've thought the bigger problem is how few guitar bands came through to festival headline status in the latter half of the 2010s tbf.

[VCK]

2 hours ago, Furq said:

Another nail in the coffin of guitar bands as headliners?

All eyes on GnR...

 

 

 

Not at all, Arctic Monkeys have always been ropey live. Give someone like Foo Fighters, Metallica or Muse that slot and they would have knocked it out of the park.

[ROTY]

I’ve seen them about 8 times since 2009, and I never got into that last 2 albums so my expections were quite low… but yesterday was the best time I’ve seen them. Just a brilliant performance, with a lot of new interpretations of older classics. Nice to see how they keep op reinventing theirselves.

Had the feeling everyone around me was having an amazing time too. If you want a band that plays their 15yr old hits like they did for more than 10 years… just buy a cd or listen on Spotify I’d say 🙂

[FloorFiller]

2 hours ago, charlierc said:

Would've thought the bigger problem is how few guitar bands came through to festival headline status in the latter half of the 2010s tbf.

Yup, that’s gonna be why we suddenly start seeing less and less of them at the top of the lineup - not because AM turned in a mediocre performance. After The 1975 have done it in the next couple of years, who else is there left to step up?

[Dave_c]

I thought they were fantastic and everyone around us were loving it. Don't understand the negativity, I think a lot of people had already made their mind up that they would be sh*t before they even started. 

[majormajormajor]

Hasn't the festival booking policy just become more mainstream, more for the masses? And AM have gone the other way?

[FloorFiller]

4 minutes ago, majormajormajor said:

Hasn't the festival booking policy just become more mainstream, more for the masses? And AM have gone the other way?

They just don’t make music for festivals anymore, or at least not for headlining one, and despite their best efforts, their fanbase just isn’t playing ball on their new direction so they’re constantly playing to crowds who want their old sh*t. Real weird position they’re in really - tried to pull a Radiohead and get weird but it just hasn’t landed at all with the people going to their shows. 

[al_coholic]

Alex is deliberately and I mean deliberately alienating his fan base because of his incredible sense of self worth. I have never seen it before in any band I have followed. Singing your own songs slowly so the crowd can't sing along is madness. 

[Drums Please Fab]

5 minutes ago, al_coholic said:

Alex is deliberately and I mean deliberately alienating his fan base because of his incredible sense of self worth. I have never seen it before in any band I have followed. Singing your own songs slowly so the crowd can't sing along is madness. 

I did get that vibe myself.

[FloorFiller]

Just now, al_coholic said:

Alex is deliberately and I mean deliberately alienating his fan base because of his incredible sense of self worth. I have never seen it before in any band I have followed. Singing your own songs slowly so the crowd can't sing along is madness. 

I do kind of get the impression that their U-turn in sound was a result of him disliking the swathes of dickheads who go to their shows and call themselves fans, especially after the release of AM. Hasn’t really worked as those same people still go and just get annoyed when they play new stuff… but what better way to shake those kinds of people than to release music that’s the total opposite of lads lads lads bangers. 

[henry bear]

I watched it last night as a neutral; they don’t do much for me personally but I’m happy to be won over. I wasn’t. Forgettable songs performed by a lacklustre band to an often disinterested crowd. And why are they dressed like a mid-70’s pub rock band?

[matrainertje]

8 hours ago, yaniv297 said:

OK, a disclaimer: I don't like Arctic Monkeys, I've seen them on the AM tour and was bored to death, I think they're one of the most overrated bands alive. I also didn't watch their Glastonbury set, live or on TV.

That being said, going off the setlist only I really don't see the complaints about "not playing enough classics"? Literally each one of their top 10 Spotify songs were played. Playing 4 tunes from their newest record is the pretty standard amount. They only played 1 tune each from "Tranquility" and "Suck it", which people don't like, and they are both the most popular songs from those.

I mean, I guess they could have had "When the Sun Goes Down" in there, but it's also silly to expect them to play a set based on their first album when they were teenagers. Maybe it didn't go down well in person, but setlist seems pretty fine to me.

This reminds me of some people criticizing Radiohead for 'not playing enough hits' in 2017 after their biggest hits packed set they've ever played. Paranoid Android, No Surprises, Street Spirit, Fake Plastic Trees, Lotus Flower, Creep, Idioteque, Karma Police, Exit Music, Weird Fishes, Lucky, There There etc all in one go. Literally only High & Dry, My Iron Lung and arguably Burn The Witch were missing. 

[Drums Please Fab]

32 minutes ago, FloorFiller said:

I do kind of get the impression that their U-turn in sound was a result of him disliking the swathes of dickheads who go to their shows and call themselves fans, especially after the release of AM. Hasn’t really worked as those same people still go and just get annoyed when they play new stuff… but what better way to shake those kinds of people than to release music that’s the total opposite of lads lads lads bangers. 

I think people are conflating 2 separate issues here.

1. Their new material.

2. Their performance.

I personally like their new material, but I have to be in a certain mood to listen to it. I understand bands mature and change their sound. 

However slowing songs down intentionally so there can't even be a sing song with the crowd is a bit odd. 

I wanna be yours is already slow, and he turned it into a funeral procession. 505 was butchered. Etc Etc

And it seemed resentful, performative and deliberately so. During I wanna be yours he seemed to hang on sentences to almost have the last word over the crowd.

Edited June 24, 2023 by Drums Please Fab

[Drums Please Fab]

https://twitter.com/ScheifferBates/status/1672598557923196929?s=20

Edited June 24, 2023 by Drums Please Fab

[majormajormajor]

 

[Furq]

6 hours ago, VCK said:

Not at all, Arctic Monkeys have always been ropey live. Give someone like Foo Fighters, Metallica or Muse that slot and they would have knocked it out of the park.

Really hard to imagine any of them headlining again!

[FloorFiller]

1 minute ago, Furq said:

Really hard to imagine any of them headlining again!

Metallica were definitely a one and done, and Muse’ time has probably passed, but I’d be surprised if Foos never headline again, especially after yesterday. They’ll be back in a few years for sure. 

[eddie_corrigan]

Well I don’t know about you but I thought Alex did really well last night

[SheffJeff]

6 minutes ago, eddie_corrigan said:

Well I don’t know about you but I thought Alex did really well last night

Cwying Lightning!

[jparx]

2 hours ago, henry bear said:

I watched it last night as a neutral; they don’t do much for me personally but I’m happy to be won over. I wasn’t. Forgettable songs performed by a lacklustre band to an often disinterested crowd. And why are they dressed like a mid-70’s pub rock band?

Aye, the whole thing is a bit lost on me. They seem like a band with a total identity crisis - shunning the music that brought them to the dance but not really evolving in the way that the likes of Beatles and Radiohead managed. I respect them for trying to evolve, but I dunno if they’re talented enough to pull off that transition.

[Ryan1984]

9 hours ago, FloorFiller said:

Metallica were definitely a one and done, and Muse’ time has probably passed, but I’d be surprised if Foos never headline again, especially after yesterday. They’ll be back in a few years for sure. 

I’d be surprised if Muse didn’t come back at some point - friends of the festival and an easy booking for Emily with a spectacle of a show. Might be a few more years yet though…

[jow95]

A good show but a missed opportunity. The minimum amount of early tunes to satisfy the fans and but after sprinkling them across the tour in the last few weeks it could have been an epic show of the hits they've been wheeling out. They could have blown away a crowd on their side and still dropped in a few new slow ones for the telly coverage but realistically everyone I have spoken to who was there agreed they were somewhat disappointed.