This piece originally appeared on Ragnarock.net.

Miles Kane, Alex Turner, and a string section, is all you need to get over the post-bank-holiday blues. Together they’re known as The Last Shadow Puppets, and they were in Leicester last Tuesday. It’s been a while since you could easily see Alex Turner without having to get there five hours early or settle with watching a distant bequiffed dot from the back of an arena. De Montfort Hall, with its intimate standing area and air of grandeur, was the perfect setting for this suave show from the Shadow Puppets. It was the kind of show where, on a purely aesthetic level, you wish that the smoking ban could be temporarily lifted. The sight of swirling tendrils of smoke would have topped off the effortlessly cool, Art Decco vibe that Kane & Turner conjured.

When support band The Lapelles had finished warming up the crowd with their energetic indie rock, the Shadow Puppets strolled onto a stage surrounded by strings and retro light stands. The string section not only looked great, but sounded it too, and weren’t awkwardly trotting out for the odd song, but were an integral part of the entire set.

This was definitely a Last Shadow Puppets show, rather than a discount Arctic Monkeys concert or Miles Kane And Guests. The setlist had an equal combination of songs from both albums as well as covers of Lennon Cohen’s Is This What You Wanted and the Beatles’ I Want You. The live setting made the songs click in that way that an album does after your third listen. Miles’ garage rock guitar sound and Alex’s post-quiff semi-crooning formed a powerful duet. Their onstage chemistry allowed them to seem cool and in control, but at the same time left a lot of room for them to have fun.

Highlights include Miles’ unrestrained soloing on Bad Habits and Alex’s playful rendition of lyrics like ‘It’s really just the pits without you baby, It’s like everyone’s a dick without you baby’. But the defining moment of the show had to be when Alex spotted a girl at the front of the right-hand balcony who had been singing along to every word of every song, and spent the next song serenading her from below.

There were eight years between this tour and their last album. After this show, I can’t wait that long again.