An evening with The Mysterines, The Hives, and Arctic Monkeys!
Arctic Monkeys has been touring the world for a while now to promote their latest album “The Car” (check out our review HERE).
It’s now the turn for the UK & Ireland, where they’re playing 13 dates in 9 cities. THS decided to catch them in Southampton, a city 75 miles southwest of London. These UK shows have been happening at Stadiums, and the Southampton takes place at a Cricket ground.
We arrived on a bus specially chartered for the event, alongside tens of buses coming from the main parking area for the event, 4 miles away. By the time we got there, we had missed the first of the two opening bands, The Mysterines, but we got in just in time for The Hives.
THE HIVES
Pelle Almqvist’s band kicked things off with “Bogus Operandi” and blasted the audience with 4 more songs before playing their classic “Hate to Say I told you so”. Pelle’s energy is amazing and contagious. Fortunately, the audience was familiar with The Hives repertoire, so it didn’t feel like they were all waiting just for that song. They closed their set with their latest single “Countdown to Shutdown”, a song with a great riff that left people wanting more.
ARCTIC MONKEYS
Then, at 9:00 pm sharp, Artic Monkeys came out with “Brianstorm”. The audiences in England always chant most Arctic Monkeys’ songs, and tonight was not the exception.
They played hit after hit, but it all went mad when they reached the 11th song: “Fluorescent Adolescent”. The beers flew again with song 14, “Do I wanna know?” and then with song 17: “505”. They played 3 songs from their latest album: “Perfect Sense”, “There’d better be a mirrorball” and the last song before the Encore: “Body Paint”. They left for a very short break, coming back with “I wanna be yours”, “I bet you look good on the dance floor” and “R U Mine”.
All in all it was a great show that proved once again that Arctic Monkeys are a well-established institution in the great British rock and roll cannon. After here, they go to London to close their UK tour with 3 shows at the Emirates Stadium followed by a headline set at Glastonbury on June 23rd.
SETLIST
Arctic Monkeys Setlist – Southampton, UK
- Brianstorm
- Snap Out of It
- Crying Lightning
- Teddy Picker
- The View From the Afternoon
- Cornerstone
- Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?
- Arabella
- Four Out of Five
- Pretty Visitors
- Fluorescent Adolescent
- Suck It and See
- Perfect Sense
- Do I Wanna Know?
- Mardy Bum
- There’d Better Be a Mirrorball
- 505
- Body Paint
Encore:
- I Wanna Be Yours (John Cooper Clarke cover)
- I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
- R U Mine?
