Live

The Last Shadow Puppets, Ipso Facto

Luke Hannaford 23/10/2008

The Last Shadow Puppets consist of Alex Turner (frontman of Arctic Monkeys) and Miles Kane from The Rascals. Of course, all Alex Turner fans are going to take note of his little side project and especially as he is from Sheffield, you'd expect a lot of fans to be there for him. And for all of the indie fans out there you'd expect this band to become very popular.

I was expecting tonight to be almost theatrical, and so it was; with a 16-piece orchestra, with a drop down curtain veiled over the orchestra, and the lights shining onto the black curtain as you could see the orchestra illuminated behind. As it was, the band played a little intro then two familiar people appeared from either side and walked onto the stage. Alex and Miles arrived to a load of cheers filling The Oval Hall. Greeting Sheffield, The Last Shadow Puppets started off with the song In my Room. The only downside to the gig was the venue as it was all seated. It might have been a bit special having Alex play in his hometown but the crowd stayed almost static for the first half of the gig. Although there was one odd man who came into the venue by himself dressed all smart, he was the only person to stand up and dance along. In the end he did get kicked out and told off as he started swinging his umbrella about and bashing it on the floor. Everyone was cheering for him as he was escorted out.

Last Shadow Puppets' second song was The Age of an Understatement which has been Number 1 in the UK indie charts for a long time from their debut album The Age of the Understatement. This was amazing with the orchestra in the background. When the band played The Meeting Place, Alex's dad joined in by playing the trumpet, which his dad didn't want people to know he was playing. But Alex announced that he was there anyway.

Afterwards the crowd started shouting for them to play Fake Tales of San Francisco and called out: Go on Alex! Alex's reply was something along the lines of This is... separate and everyone shut the f*ck up. Everyone applauded Alex for that. They did do a few covers, one of them being I Want You by The Beatles. This was really good, and they did a cover of Paris Summer by Nancy Sinatra. This was performed with Rosalie Cunningham from Ipso Facto which was the support band for The Last Shadow Puppets. She had a lovely voice which went well with the song. I didn't think much of Ipso Facto - they are sort of psychedelic and synth and an all-girl combo.

As everyone was cheering for Alex, Miles thought he would get his turn of shouting by randomly kissing a girl that was in the audience. Then Miles accused the security guard of being jealous. This certainly stirred things up as everyone was really starting to get into the music despite being seated. Almost drowning out the subtleness of the orchestra, a loud roaring went throughout the crowd. The security didn't quite like that but there was nothing they could do! At last, the gig seemed 10 times as good with everyone participating.

This was definitely a gig worth going to. For all indie lovers out there or Turner fans this was not a gig to be missed.