T in the Park Review – Arctic Monkeys, Sunday

“An overwhelmingly underwhelming end to not only T in the Park but to the site that has become synonymous with the legendary music festival”

Tonight’s closing set was always destined to make T in the Park history and, with the onus on Sheffield’s Arctic Monkeys to give Balado the send-off it deserved, expectations were understandably high.

The band strolled onstage just as the sun started to set, with frontman Alex Turner looking disinterested as always, and immediately launched into surprisingly slick and polished performances of Do I Wanna Know? and Snap Out Of It. The band took an early risk in inserting a snippet of Black Sabbath’s War Pigs into Arabella but the heavy metal nod was lost of the majority of casual fans in the audience who seemed set on standing still with vacant glares in their eyes until the opening beats of I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor inspired them to erupt into a frenzy.

Unfortunately, the party ended there. A lacklustre set with bad sound followed, with the band looking like they’d much rather be watching Germany beat Argentina in the World Cup final than performing such a coveted slot.

Their new materially might be critically acclaimed but songs like Knee Socks and Fireside simply don’t seem to cut it in the live arena. Unfortunately, the most telling thing about Arctic Monkey’s T in the Park performance was that, when they walked offstage before the inevitable encore, barely anyone joined in the chant for them to return.

Arctic Monkeys might be one of the biggest bands in rock at the moment but, with a set as dull as this, it’s very hard to understand why. An overwhelmingly underwhelming end to not only T in the Park but to the site that has become synonymous with the legendary music festival.