From the moment Arctic Monkeys walk onstage to a twinkling introduction that sounds like a bad ‘70s TV theme, it’s clear this isn’t a typical concert DVD. For the first few bars, you can be forgiven for thinking they’ve filmed their soundcheck. The crowd is virtually invisible apart from a few screams at the start of the big songs, without a single close-up on a punter. It’s a nice little change, but that’s to be expected from a band that has spent most of its career running away from the hype machine they’ve become synonymous with.

Despite their lightning-fast rise, Arctic Monkeys are still a band established on solid foundations. While each song has a strong rhythmic foundation, their releases so far have been no-nonsense affairs built around a uniquely simple, colloquial and clever sound. Their live shows are the same – it’s a set crammed full of songs at the expense of any jibber-jabber between them. But the downside of such a meat-and-potatoes approach is that it limits their stage presence, which hurts a film focused entirely on their stagecraft. As frenetic as an Arctic Monkeys show can be, it’s generally because of the thumping tunes rather than king rock moves.

The band look unimpressed in parts of this set, and despite their tightly-locked playing, it seems like they’re just going through the motions in a few places. That said, for the songs they do fire up for ( I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor, When the Sun Goes Down ), there’s a heavy wallop behind it. And while the singles seem to pack a lot of the punch, non-album cuts like Nettles and guest vocalist Richard Hawley’s strains on Bad Woman are far from neglected. The sound overall is almost flawless, presenting a two-edged sword: it’s nice to hear the songs clean and sharp, but in a lot of places it sounds just like the album.

For fans, this will be worth a look, but it’s by no means essential. While it’s a good concert film, aside from a few new tracks it doesn’t really offer a great deal over their other releases. Live At The Apollo is a solid DVD release, but visual formats aren’t really the strong suit of a band that thrives on a diligent focus on their music.

Live At The Apollo is out now through Warp Films.