The year is almost ended and it’s time to remember one of the coolest events I visited this year – the concert of the British indie rock band Arctic Monkeys in Dusseldorf on November 11th. For me November has always been the month with the hottest concerts – when the bands have already finished their “summer festivaling” and go on tour.
Arctic Monkeys were formed 2002 somewhere near Sheffield in England. Today it is one of the most important indie rock bands, which has already managed to win several awards such as «The Best British Band » and similar. Recently Arctic Monkeys released her fifth studio album titled «AM».
I started listening Arctic Monkeys about two years ago. At that moment I was looking for some new positive and inspiring music. And indeed, after the third time listening of the debut demo album of “monkeys” called “Beneath the Boardwalk” (2005 ), I actively began to sing along with their catchy hit melodies .
The logical consequence of listening to further Arctic Monkeys’ creations was my visit to their concert in Mitsubishi Electric Halle in Dusseldorf.
Same same rush from work to Dusseldorf by car, pretty cold waiting line before the concert hall, highly strategic intentions to get into the first rows, typical pre-concert excitement… and a surprisingly good warm-up!
Arctic Monkeys’ warm-up band called The Strypes came from Ireland. These very young guys (the members of the band are currently around 16-18 years old) with their rock-n-roll rhythms managed to raise the crowd to its feet from the first song on. The special respect goes to the guitarist of the band for his incredible solo parts in every song. Although it would be wrong not to mention the other musicians of The Strypes since all of them performed a very high level of skills and also an adequate behavior on stage.
The Strypes entertained the audience during approx. 45 minutes. To be honest I was glad about their groovy music since the new album of Arctic Monkeys turned out to be rich in rather slow tracks…
After another half an hour of tuning of guitars/drums/microphones/smoke machine/lights and other equipment Arctic Monkeys finally came out, led by their charismatic frontman Alex Turner. As their first track they chose my currently my favorite song from the new album «Do I Wanna Know».
This one was followed by «Brianstorm», «Dancing Shoes» and a few other hits from their previous albums. After that Alex and company started playing less rhythmic songs from «AM», finally allowing me to take a couple of clearer pictures.
As you might notice, I focused my good old Canon mainly on the vocalist, guitarist and the main poseur of the band, who once had a long hair and now uses loads of hair gel «Elvis style» and wears a fancy coat, who got the whole female audience excited by only introducing himself: «Hi, my name is Alexander» — Alex Turner .
In their playlist Arctic Monkeys united songs from all their albums, with an accent on their new one. There is no sense of looking here for some crazy blockbusters as «I bet you look good on the dancefloor» or «Teddy Picker». Contrary to some extremely laudatory critics who rank the latest work of Arctic Monkeys among the best albums of the decade, I cannot call «AM» my personal favorite.
I’m glad that Arctic Monkeys do not repeat themselves in every next album, trying to transform some already proven successful tunes, but surprise the listener with the new sound and more mature lyrics.
After the 18th song, the slow and romantic «I wanna be yours» Arctic Monkeys went from the stage, but fortunately not for long. We still had 3 encore songs including the especially pleasant surprise for me — one of my favorites «Piledriver Waltz». For the big final of their successful show Arctic Monkeys left crazy «R U Mine», being absolutely sure that the whole room, every girl and every boy is theirs.
As expected, the concert was amazing and now I really, really want to visit one of the largest open-airs of Arctic Monkeys in England (which is not that easy, since they are normally sold out).
The New Year will definitely bring some new exciting gigs and other pleasant stuff. I wish you all the best — may your year 2014 be healthy, successful, happy, full of sunny days and (of course) good music!
The full photoalbum from the concert of Arctic Monkeys 11.11.2013 in Dusseldorf can be found here.
Here is the set list of the concert :
1) Do I Wanna Know? (AM, 2013)
2) Brianstorm (Favourite Worst Nightmare, 2007)
3) Dancing Shoes (Whatever people say I am, thats what I am not, 2006)
4) Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair (Suck it and see, 2011)
5) Teddy Picker (Favourite Worst Nightmare, 2007)
6) Crying Lightning (Humbug, 2009)
7) One for the Road (AM, 2013)
8) Fireside (AM, 2013)
9) Old Yellow Bricks (Favourite Worst Nightmare, 2007)
10) Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? (AM, 2013)
11) Arabella (With ‘War Pigs’ snippet) (AM, 2013)
12) Pretty Visitors (Humbug, 2009)
13) I Want It All (AM, 2013)
14) I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor (Whatever people say I am, thats what I am not, 2006)
15) Cornerstone (Humbug, 2009)
16) No. 1 Party Anthem (AM, 2013)
17) Fluorescent Adolescent (Favourite Worst Nightmare, 2007)
18) I Wanna Be Yours (AM, 2013)
Encore:
19) Snap Out of It (AM, 2013)
20) Piledriver Waltz (Suck it and see, 2011)
21) R U Mine? (AM, 2013)
