Live Review: Arctic Monkeys, Mini Mansions

Mini Mansions seem to have a lot of fans in this Arctic Monkeys Melbourne crowd. They open with Freakout! seeing guitarist (and Queens Of The Stone bass player) Michael Shuman take on vocal duties. Shuman’s not competing to be the group’s sole star though, with keyboard player Tyler Parkford sharing vocals throughout the set. Their performance moves around freely from angsty rock to dreamy soundscapes and everything in between, and it seems to be the perfect fit for the evening.

Mini Mansions. Photos by Monique Pizzica.

A flashing red light takes over the stage and the crowd knows it’s now time for the evening’s main event, Sheffield’s Arctic Monkeys. There’s a distorted beeping as the hexagon-shaped lighting rig drops down over the stage and we’re transported to the 'Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino' - the stage acting as the pseudo lobby for the moon-based luxury accommodation the group's latest album is centred around.

The show starts with Four Out Of Five, the crowd cheering as frontman Alex Turner poses in front of the mic. Brianstorm, from their 2007 album Favourite Worst Nightmare, gets the crowd buzzing, jumping and waving their arms as the strobe lights flash over them. “Hello, it’s the Arctic Monkeys here,” says Turner as they wrap up the song and he’s plunged into darkness.

The theme of their Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino concept album carries through all aspects of their performance, with the band dressed in dapper suits - even the screen projections are given a treatment filter that makes the footage of the band on stage feel reminiscent of Elvis’ 68 Comeback Special.

The show progresses through an impressive setlist, including Dancing Shoes, Science Fiction, One Point Perspective, Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair and Do I Wanna Know?, the last of which has the whole arena on their feet and dancing. Turner tells the crowd they’d be leaving us “with a song from 2005. This is called I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor,” which draws the most enthusiastic response from the crowd all evening.

Turner’s become quite the charismatic frontman over the years, sauntering around the stage, flicking his microphone cord behind him and staring down the barrel of the cameras. If you’d walked into this show when that song (and its accompanying album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not) dropped, you surely wouldn’t recognise this as the same band. Gone are the club shows, now replaced with arena spectaculars - complete with a very impressive cubed lightbox that acts as a disco ball and lowers from the roof as the band walk back out from their encore break.

While the band’s style has certainly shifted from their debut album, they’re more than happy to take their fans on that sonic journey throughout the show and the audience is more than willing to join them. They may have rolled the dice with Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino but judging by tonight, the house has won again.