We were proudly given the opportunity to see the Arctic Monkeys second show at Hillsborough Park! This was my sixth time seeing the little band from Sheffield, my 5th time was actually the first Sheffield show of this stadium tour and my god it was incredible, who would’ve guessed that they’d open with A Certain Romance? Not me! Their first full band performance of the song since 2013 and first ever time being the opener!
Supported by Liverpool based band The Mysterines, fronted by Lia Metcalfe, the band have been grafting for a good few years, touring with bands such as Royal Blood and Liverpool legend Miles Kane when they were 17 years old! I saw the band play in support of The Lathums for This Feeling for £7 a couple of years ago at Yorkshire’s best music venue (don’t bite my head off!) Brudenell Social Club in Leeds!
Swedish punk band and good friends of Arctic Monkeys, The Hives were also supporting. Incredible opener! So much energy, tonnes of precision, definitely a band you must see in the future!
Regardless, the show on the 10th unfortunately did not feature A Certain Romance in any capacity, it still kicked off rowdier than anyone could possibly imagine! Brianstorm opened the proceedings, if that’s the opener then we can’t possibly expect the set to get in any way worse. As a hard time Monkeys fan myself, I’m a bit disappointed that Snap Out Of It has been a staple of a Monkeys set for the past few tours, I’d love to hear another AM song take its place like Fireside or even an extra track from Suck it and See which doesn’t get enough recognition! That being said, Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair was next, Alex allowed the crowd to sing the first couple of lines “Break a mirror, roll the dice” was echoing around the park, surely heard from at least a couple of miles away!
Crying Lightning, Teddy Picker and From the Ritz to the Rubble were next which was rowdy, energetic and a very memorable portion of the set, especially since Ritz doesn’t get played live as much as it used to!
Cornerstone with Alex’s talent to sing in time and yet out of time to confuse the audience never gets boring, the song is followed by a lovely piano interlude.
Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High and Arabella were up next which gave everyone a nice break, unfortunately this period of the set was tarnished by how many phones were up in the air, thousands of screens held up for a good 10 minutes during the entirety of the songs.
Four out of Five, sadly the only Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino track to be played, energetic, explosive and exquisite is the only use of alliteration I can think of for this song but yet it fits so well. I’d love to hear more Tranquility Base songs on future tours in future, Batphone and The Ultracheese being the priority!
Fan favourites Pretty Visitors and Fluorescent Adolescent are next, same as I said for High and Arabella unfortunately! Too many screens!
I’d seen Perfect Sense the night before, being one of my personal favourites from their most recent outing ‘The Car’, it is truly an incredible live track, so precise, so smooth, one of my favourite songs of any time I’ve ever seen the band live! Do I Wanna Know is THE song, the song that is played at every show without fail since its release of July 2013. As much as the song is incredibly overplayed nowadays, it still never really gets boring whenever you see it live.
Mardy Bum is up next, a Sheffield classic this one, in all of its glory at possibly one of the biggest concerts in Sheffield history! Chanting of Yorkshire flooded the inside of the park’s walls. You know as a band you’ve made it when the crowd is chanting the guitar line of one of your songs, which is exactly what happens here. Alex allows the crowd to take over for the last chorus “when you’re all… argumentative”.
In my opinion, Body Paint is the perfect Arctic Monkeys song, it shows off all of the members’ individual talents and skills, which almost makes it sound like there’s way more musicians on stage than there actually is, it’s almost orchestral in a way. The guitar tone and the build-up to the payoff are gorgeous, especially with Alex’s extended finger picking guitar solo outro at the end. It shows off the musicianship and chemistry between the band perfectly. This song itself ends up lasting around 7 minutes which leaves the crowd dipped into darkness for the encore.
Body Paint’s subterfuge into Sculptures of Anything Goes is a perfect blend and use of the lighting, the dark brooding intro gives us slow lingering blasts of white lights between each bar. The setting is yet again dipped into black, which explodes into I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor which brings the crowd back from the dead, not a single soul is stood still, the sight of 40,000 people probably, definitely looked good on the dancefloor from Alex’s perspective.
The set finishes with the 2013 classic, the song that I first heard from the Monkeys. (not sure why it wasn’t an earlier song, anyway, thanks Forza Horizon!) R U Mine? Is tonight’s closer, as it is most of the time! It perfectly encapsulates the last hour and a half into 4 minutes. The Monkeys have never been classier than this.
As fans are walking home, chants of ‘Yorkshire, Yorkshire, Yorkshire’ and fans singing Mardy Bum in unison clearly shows how much this band means to people, the shows sold out incredibly quickly which just shows there’s no intention of slowing down!
