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Lumley Castle Hotel
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Tuesday, 16th March 2010

Arctic Monkeys, Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle

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Published Date: 17 November 2009
THE Arctic Monkeys' rise to the top was a rapid one, but they arrived on Tyneside last night as part of their first-ever arena tour nearly four years after their debut album became the fastest seller in British history.
As well as being slow to reach arenas, the Sheffield quartet have also done so the unconventional way, on the back of a dark and less-accessible third album, far from the radio friendly unit shifter route most arena-fillers take.

As with their two previous albums, Humbug is a great record, without a bad song on it, and it was the strength of singer Alex Turner's songwriting that stood out on the night.

He certainly isn't the best frontman in the world, with very little energy or charisma, but when you've got songs as good as his at your disposal, you don't need to be.

A perfect example of this was current single Cornerstone, a wonderful slower number from the new album that was easily the best song of the night, and quite possibly their finest moment yet.

Plenty of other new songs were also aired, but although they were all lapped up by the enthusiastic crowd, few have the energy or impact to truly light up such a large venue.

That's not to say they weren't performed well though, as proved by the aforementioned Cornerstone and another album standout, Dance Little Liar.

Predictably, the biggest cheers were saved for the band's earliest material, such as Still Take You Home, View From The Afternoon and When The Sun Goes Down, which inspired the biggest singalong of the night.

Although they weren't necessarily the best-played, it's tunes like these that look set to become classics, being from arguably the defining album of this decade's British indie scene.

If you had to bet on bands from the 'noughties' that will be remembered, Arctic Monkeys would be fairly high up most people's lists, and rightly so.

However, if they can build on their current momentum and keep working on live performances, who would bet against them becoming even bigger in the next 10 years?

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  • Last Updated: 17 November 2009 12:37 PM
  • Source: n/a
  • Location: South Shields
 
 

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