Arctic Monkeys at Finsbury Park: (Realistic) Dream Setlist

Two of the biggest shows in Arctic Monkeys’ career are fast approaching and I’m lucky enough to have tickets for Saturday 24th. This will be the 4th time I’ve seen them live and it’s got to be said that I’m more excited than ever for their colossal homecoming (of sorts) gig. It would be too cliché – not to mention incorrect – to label these ‘coming of age’ gigs. That happened a long time ago, despite Alex Turner and co still only being in their twenties. They are still, however, going to be very special occasions and I believe that the setlist should reflect this.

After reading this blog and this article from NME, I tried to put together a setlist which would not only be throughly enjoyable for myself but one which I believe is realistic. This was more difficult than I could have ever imagined. Arctic Monkeys are my favourite band and as much as I love ‘AM’, it isn’t my favourite album of theirs, but I believe the majority of it will be played at Finsbury Park. So with a great sadness I had to sacrifice some ‘classic’ songs from earlier albums in order to make the setlist more realistic.

One thing that can almost be guaranteed is that they will start with ‘Do I Wanna Know.’ Other songs sure to make an outing are ‘I Bet You Look Good On the Dancefloor’, ‘Brianstorm’ and ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’. After that it’s basically guesswork.

I’m not one to assume (it makes an ass of you and me) but I’d hazard a guess that some of the songs that have been ‘rested’ over the past year such as ‘Do Me a Favour’ and ‘A View from the Afternoon’ maybe likely to crop up. I’d also like to hope that ‘When the Sun Goes Down’ will make its first appearance since Glastonbury. 40,000 people singing about a ‘scummy man’ would be a strangely beautiful thing and would capture the quintessential Britishness that made people first fall in love with the band. Something they seem to have lost over the years as their image and sound have evolved.

I definitely think the first two albums will get a bigger outing than the 3rd and 4th, with drummer Matt Helders recently acknowledging the “massive affiliation” people in England have for the first album. I think that the setlist will reflect this with material from ‘Humbug’ and ‘Suck it and See’ being quite sparse in comparison.

It seems a no-brainer that the set will be AM-heavy with Alex Turner describing himself as “still wrapped up” in the album, saying: “we’re still slapping each other on the back for that one.” There can be no complaints as it is a great album, albeit with a couple of exceptions *cough* I Want It All *cough* but I don’t think they’re going to play the album in its entirety as they’ve basically been doing that for the duration of their most recent tour.

In terms of surprises and special guests, it would be more surprising if Miles Kane didn’t join them on stage to play along with ‘505’. I do think at least one of the ‘Last Shadow Puppets’ back-catalogue will get an outing over the weekend, but think it would be more likely to occur in Miles Kane’s set, along with Arctic Monkeys’ B-side ‘Little Illusion Machine (Wirral Ridder)’. It’d be a great touch to get Josh Homme in to provide his haunting backing vocals on ‘Knee Socks’ but I won’t hold my breath. I also wouldn’t rule out the recent cover of Tame Impala’s ‘Feels Like We’re Only Going Backwards’ appearing at some stage.

I think an encore of first album songs, with crowd singalongs to ‘When The Sun Goes Down’ and ‘Mardy Bum’ followed by the classic closer ‘A Certain Romance’ would top off the weekend perfectly.

Here’s my predicted setlist:

  1. Do I Wanna Know
  2. Brianstorm
  3. A View From the Afternoon
  4. Snap Out of It
  5. Arabella
  6. Don’t Sit Down Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair
  7. Dancing Shoes
  8. Old Yellow Bricks
  9. Teddy Picker
  10. Crying Lightning
  11. Pretty Visitors
  12. Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?
  13. I Bet You Look Good On the Dancefloor
  14. Knee Socks
  15. Fluorescent Adolescent
  16. No.1 Party Anthem/I Wanna Be Yours
  17. Do Me a Favour
  18. R U Mine?
  19. One For the Road
  20. 505
  21. When the Sun Goes Down
  22. Mardy Bum
  23. A Certain Romance

 

Let me know what you think of my predicted setlist and comment with your dream setlist.

 

 

3 comments

  1. jamesthedrake

    I think you’re close, but I think you’ve messed up the encore a bit. They’ve stopped playing ‘When The Sun Goes Down’, I reckon ‘One For The Road’, would be much more likely in its place. Judging by their last few shows, they’ve started to close with ‘R U Mine’, which I don’t really agree with but I think is more likely than ‘A Certain Romance’. There’ll definitely be more than one track from ‘Suck It And See’ too, I’d put my money on ‘She’s Thunderstorms’ knocking about somewhere. Just have to wait and see! I’m sure they’ll have something special planned, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they got Kevin Parker or Miles Kane out for a couple of songs, especially with them recently doing a few Tame Impala covers.

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