Arctic Monkeys, Voxtrot @ Macdonald Theatre, OR

(Picture by Freddie Powell Tuck)

It is with a little shame that I confess that Friday night was the first time I've seen the Arctic Monkeys live. The Macdonald Theatre, Eugene, OR was also not the kind of place I expected run into the Sheffield raised kings of indie pop.

With The Coral pulling out, Texas indie outfit Voxtrot took over and bashed out half a dozen decent but not awe inspiring radio friendly indie tunes. They served as a decent support to Arctic Monkeys with their UK influenced brand of indie.

[mp3] Voxtrot - Your Biggest Fan

And so with the staged warmed and then cooled again following a wait bordering on an hour, the Arctic Monkeys were ready to do their thing.

It was probably too much to ask for the Arctic Monkeys to be really involved in the night. While they fill stadiums back in the UK, the small venue in Eugene was just another night for the Sheffield quartet. Guitarist Jamie Cook and bassist Nick O'Malley remained rooted to the spot, occasionally gracing the audience with a half arsed smile. Singer Alex Turner, offered some friendly greetings between sips of his pint but showed little of the on stage energy and charisma you'd expect from NME magazine's 2005 "coolest man on the planet".

Musically however, the Monkeys were superb, delivering songs to such perfection you'd believe them to be fresh from the recording studio. 'Brianstorm' got the ball rolling and set the tone of bustling, sweaty, jumping bodies and mayhem for the rest of the night (Eugene kids know how to mosh).

But as a fan of the Arctic Monkeys, though not necessarily a die hard one, I found myself a little lost during the middle of the set when the album filling songs were called upon and couldn't help but wonder and wait for them to whip out the big favorites. The wait wasn't too long however and the night was very much salvaged thanks to a superb 'Fluorescent Adolescent' and a chaotic 'When the Sun Goes Down'.


[mp3] Arctic Monkeys - Florescent Adolescent
[mp3] Arctic Monkeys - The Bakery

And while on the subject of chaos -the band also warmed the crowd to a new instrumental, all guns firing tune - 'Wagon on the way to the Stripy Tent/Circus'. This isn't my recording but check it out anyway