Arctic Monkeys, Interpol and more kick off Optimus Alive 2014

Lisbon’s Optimus Alive welcomed over 50,000 fans to enjoy day one of the festival featuring a headline performance from Arctic Monkeys yesterday (Thursday 10 July, 2014). 

A tough choice between Arctic Monkeys and Kelis was influenced by the slim chance that the boys from High Green might open their set with a cover of The Beatles 'Taxman'. Unsurprisingly it was the opening bars of ‘Do I Wanna Know’ that kicked off the set, which pulled heavily from their fifth studio AM.

Frontman Alex Turner was again sporting his now trademark leather jacket and slick back hair but his he kept his interaction with the crowd to a minimum. Branching out to thank the crowd in Portuguese on two occasions he did also dedicated “old one” ‘I Bet That You Look Good On the Dance Floor’ to "the girls". 

The set certainly had more peaks than troughs, and by delving into their back catalogue to pull out ‘Dancing Shoes’ and ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’ the Portuguese crowd kept a good voice right to the final beats of 'R U Mine'?

Earlier in the day, Temples drew a Brit heavy crowd to the Heineken Tent to deliver an excellent set that showcased their fantastic debut album in almost the perfect setting. The beautiful summer evening was the ideal backdrop for the psychedelic four-piece to rattle through tracks like ‘Colours to Life’ and closing number ‘Shelter Song.’

Over on the main ‘NOS Stage’, Imagine Dragons drew a huge crowd with a set that included a cover of Blur’s ‘Song 2'. Introduced as a track from “one of their favourite bands they grew up listening to,” the energetic performance of frontman Dan Reynolds was not enough to salvage the rather painful rendition.

The performance of the day came from Interpol who took to the stage and delivered a set of the highest standard. Paul Banks, the sharpest looking man in Lisbon was in fine voice from the off as the band found the perfect balance between old and new. Frontman Banks took the time to introduce his band mates between songs like ‘Evil’, ‘PDA’ before closing the set with 2004 single ‘Slow Hands.’