More on: Arctic Monkeys

Date: 21/07/07
Rating:

Having released an effortlessly great second album, Arctic Monkeys are now hauling their punk pop asses around the European festival circuit bring some articulate rock fun to the unwashed masses. Given the questionable quality of the showers at the campsites at Benicassim it's perhaps understandable the some of the audience have let their personal hygiene slip a bit.

Tonight the Monkeys find themselves in the strange position of being sandwiched between the multicolour pop fun of the B-52s and the electroclash tomfoolery of Fischerspooner. They take to the main stage at 1.30am and are greeted by an adoring, refreshed and sunburnt crowd. Everyone from the entire festival site appears to be crammed in front of the main stage, and it's safe to assume they have won their battle with The Human League to be the Sheffield band who draws the biggest crowd of the day.

The fans aren't disappointed. Arctic Monkeys are now a formidable live act and they know it. The band onto the main stage and launch into an eardrum-threatening, loud version of 'The View From The Afternoon', followed by the thrillingly frantic 'Brianstorm'. Matt Helders is a human metronome on the drums and Alex Turner is a cool and charismatic frontman. Between song banter is kept to a minimum as the hits just keep on coming, with each song being greeted like an anthem.

'Still Take You Home' provokes mass hysteria and jumping around, lighters are held aloft for '505', and 'When The Sun Goes Down' provokes more hysteria. Actually, most songs provoke hysteria and jumping around and the Monkey Mania is justified. These are songs which are populist and anthemic without being bland and obvious. These are songs which are loud and rocking without being laddy and testosterone fuelled. This is a performance that everyone watching will remember long after their suntans have faded and they have returned to the a world where you don't have to buy beer using tokens.

Before the last song of the set, 'A Certain Romance', Turner says that he "wishes the band could play all night". 20,000 people standing in a field agree with him, partly because it means they can put off having to go back to their tents, which don't smell too good by this stage of the festival, but mostly because they know they're privileged to be watching an incredible band at the peak of their powers.

John McCarthy

Arctic Monkeys Official Site