GIG NUMBER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN
Who
Miles and Alex effortlessly alternated lead vocals and showed considerable chemistry, and were ably backed by a small band and a full-scale orchestra hiding behind a transparent screen, presumably to keep the bottles or the smells away! Indeed, I had quite a bit of beer poured over me. The sound quality was excellent and cinematic and, as you can see in the picture above, the band name was projected against a backdrop which kept changing colour according to the mood. The Age Of The Understatement was played quite early and other notable moments included a David Bowie cover, a storming In My Room, b-side Hang The Cyst and Standing Next To Me. There is little point going into specifics, they just played all the songs as epically as possible to an enthusiastic response. The band played one encore and resisted any temptation to throw in any celebratory tunes from the Arctic Monkeys back catalogue, not that anyone really minded, as The Last Shadow Puppets are pretty good as far as side projects go. As good as could be expected.
Mark: 7.5/10
The Last Shadow Puppets
Where
Wolverhampton Civic Hall
When
11th October 2008
Price
£25.00
Who with
No-one
Position
In the middle
Comments
I am surprised to observe that this was my first show at the Civic since Jerry Lee Lewis over two years previously, and I was pretty fast in buying tickets for it. I then heard the album as many times as I could but this gig coincided with probably the most exciting few months of my life, as I'd visited sixteen countries over eight separate trips. Indeed, I'd be rushing back from Paris via London to see this and it wasn't certain whether I'd make it or not, but I wasn't going to miss out on a full holiday just for the sake of one concert! In the event I raced back and made it to the Civic just after 8pm, missing almost the entire support band. Nice one! I went to the bar and had two pints of Banks's to reacquaint myself with West Midlands beer and found myself a reasonable position towards the left. Then The Last Shadow Puppets took to the stage and I'm afraid I must keep details brief, as I cannot find a setlist and the show was fairly low on gimmicks. Alex repeatedly praised Wolverhampton, saying that this was his best ever time in the city, he said we were crazy and, damn right, we were!
