Review and photos by Judy Won Photography

The last time the LC Pavilion had an invasion from British indie-rock band Arctic Monkeys was nearly 3 years ago back in 2011. While they easily sold out at the LC, they brought along Chicago-native rock band, The Orwells.  The Orwells, being a band only since 2009, and mind you, graduated high school early last year in order to pursue their musical career opened up for Arctic Monkeys around the United States, then just recently performed on the Weezer cruise, are currently on a UK tour followed by a full US tour.  While these “boys” might be young, they’ve accomplished a lot more than many bands have in their roughly 5 years of existence.  

Earlier this year, The Orwells had a memorable performance on the David Letterman show filled with hip thrusting, bizarre headbanging, and dance movements truly inspired from the rock and roll era; to say the least.  That performance on national TV was a very true and accurate representation of their daily show.   20 year-old frontman Mario Cuomo had a voice that truly sounded like it belonged in the heart of rock and roll.  They opened of the show at the LC with “Other Voices”, playing a total of 12 songs including “Dirty Sheets”, “Let It Burn” and last but not least “Southern Comfort”.  While photographing their set, I slowly and very surprisingly became a part of their set, as Cuomo walked towards me during their set while I’m photographing his movements, and began getting closer and closer to me.  He took, what seemed like mileage of microphone cording tangled around his body, and wrapped it around me, pulling me into the stage.  Being completely caught off guard, I stood there laughing and greeted him with a hello while the other photographers clicked away at the performance. The crowd continued to enjoy the rest of the set as the night continued.  

The Arctic Monkeys, all dressed as dapper as can be in their suits, opened up with “Do I Wanna Know” for the first song of night, which was also the first song you hear off of their most recently released album AM.  Throughout their show, they played 8 out of a of 12 songs off of the AM album, showing that the band wanted to showcase their most recent masterpiece. Songs such as “Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair”, “Fluorescent Adolescent”, and “Cornerstone” also made an appearance for the night, briefly giving a little bast from their past works.   While the crowd seemed to be in absolute awe from Arctic Monkeys’ show, it seemed to lack a little energy and pizzazz due to their modern, and very professional look they were repping. Although, Alex Turner seemed to be the master of hip-movement, driving some of the females in the crowd crazy as he swayed back and fourth while singing.  As of now, the Arctic Monkeys are currently performing all over Australia, hitting up various venues in Europe, and showing the US some love, playing a select few shows here during the summer. While they haven’t announced coming back to Columbus anytime soon, they plan on performing at the LC’s sister venue, Stage AE located in Pittsburgh, PA.  Maybe at that show, they band will lose some of their prim and proper look and go back to their roots of being casual and collective. 

The Orwells Gallery: