Jade's Music Blog

Arctic Monkeys and The Little Flames, Carling Academy Liverpool, Saturday April 14

Arctic Monkeys have never played by the rules. What with making their name on the internet, releasing a mere two singles from their all-conquering debut and displaying utter contempt for corporate award shows, the big book of rock and roll clichés must have got lost in the post on its way to Sheffield.
Little wonder then, that after swaggering onto stage just after 9.30pm, they should kick-off with little-known B-side If You Found This It’s Probably Too Late.
New single Brianstorm followed before a return to familiar ground with Still Take You Home met with a predictably fervent response.
Dressed in a white v-neck and faded jeans, Alex Turner could be mistaken for any other skinny student in the crowd and his rapport with his army of loyal fans is not exactly of the stadium rock variety.
It’s hard to imagine Bono addressing the masses with “ey up, share it around greedy guts” after tossing his bottle of water into the overheated crowd, but then the Monkeys’ accessibility has always been their strong point.
The potential of this band – average age 21 – is frightening.
And when an almost-apologetic Turner promised to “froth it up a bit” after introducing another new tune, froth it up they did, with the three-song run of A View From The Afternoon, Fake Tales Of San Francisco and When The Sun Goes Down almost tearing the roof off the Academy.
With the sweat dripping from the ceiling, A Certain Romance seemed to bring the evening to a close, only for the lads to unexpectedly return minutes later to encore with new album closer 505 to a half-empty venue.
A few hundred souls will be wishing they hadn’t left before the lights came on.

It would have been nice to see the Monkeys revive their collaboration on Put Your Dukes Up John with excellent support act The Little Flames, first heard at the Deltasonic Christmas gig.
The Liverpool quintet’s new single Isobella set the Academy alight. The fabulous Seven Days showcased their combination of gritty, rough-edged guitar, and Eva Petersen’s smouldering voice. The future is theirs for the taking.