Sunday, 13 August 2006

Artic Monkeys with The Grates (06/08/06, The Arena, Fortitude Valley)

The Grates
I am going to be upfront about this and say, I don’t really like The Grates. It’s mainly the style of Patience’s singing, which I am fully aware is a big part of The Grates overall style. Even though The Grates are not my cup of tea I will try to be fair in reviewing their performance. John and Alana both performed exceptionally well, and I personally immensely appreciated the music behind the vocals that they produced. Patience added a lot of energy to The Grates performance and really got the crowd going, jumping and dancing around the stage. Patience’s singing was not being helped by all that jumping around. As a result in my opinion the best song she performed all night was their last song of the set “Science Is Golden”, simply because she was not jumping around and could actually sing. There were no major technical hitches that I picked up, and the lighting was fantastic.

Performance 6
Technical 8


Arctic Monkeys
To be honest I was undecided about the Arctic Monkeys, and this concert was either going to lead me to like them or just be impartial towards their music. The crowd completely packed the dance floor in front of the stage. Forming an intense mosh pit, which had some crazy sideway movement even before there was any sign of the Arctic Monkeys. The lighting really set the scene and contributed to the concert, giving it plenty of rock status. The only thing which I am unsure whether it added or took away from the overall performance was how drunk Alex was (he was pretty smashed). Alex in between song banter was in a mumbling British accent, which he apologised for. (HAHA) I recommend keeping an eye on these guys, future shows should be a real treat once they have another album or two out. I hope to see a second album from them soon.

Performance 8
Technical 9

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