Arctic Monkeys use their capriciousness for a memorable concert

A combination of cheering reactions from the audience, atmospheric lighting, clear sound reproduction and accurate collaboration of the musicians on stage ensured a memorable performance by Arctic Monkeys on Friday night. It was somewhat unexpected that the group would come into its own in a sold-out Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam. In Alex Turner’s band, the mood can be erratic, and that sometimes shows during concerts.

But on this evening, all aspects of their capriciousness were used for a special concert. After a career of more than twenty years, Arctic Monkeys succeed in reconciling older and new musical ideas; and she manages to reach a new, young audience (via TikTok).

It became a concert like a journey, from boyish swagger in the pubs and clubs of hometown Sheffield, expressed in excited rock songs, to a sojourn in the California desert, where lashing guitars with heavy rhythms would color the songs. And finally docked in a jet-set haven on the Riviera, the smoky nightclub atmosphere turned into slow songs with nostalgic sounds.

But how do you combine the aggression of ‘Pretty Visitors’ with the languorous ‘Body Paint’? And how does a singer combine his adult desires, crowned in falsetto, with the staccato fury of the adolescent character?

Turner can switch between the different personalities, not because he acts, but because he really feels the underlying experience

Decadent décor

To do justice to their oeuvre, Alex Turner has to travel vocally through the various forms of expression he has played over the past decades. He does that great. He glides smoothly from present to past and back again. For example, the present sounded enchanting in opening track ‘Sculptures of Anything Goes’ from the latest album The Car (2022): yearningly, he spreads his singing voice over a decadent decor in which violins and simmering beats together evoke a seventies atmosphere, here even more intense than on the album.

He is just as easily the impatient teenager who has outgrown the county town of Sheffield, in songs like ‘Teddy Picker’, ‘View From The Afternoon’, and, in the encore, ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’. Turner can switch between the different personalities, not because he acts, but because he really feels the underlying experience.

Meanwhile, he looks like a playboy, with sunglasses (on and off), quasi-casual, blow-dried hair and half-open blouse. Also with this John Travolta look (at the time of Saturday Night Fever) he can fulminate and banter angrily back and forth, play virtuoso on his 12-string guitar and piano.

Arctic Monkeys in the Ziggo Dome
Andreas Terlaak’s photo

The fusion of past and present was especially evident in the song ‘Cornerstone’, from Humbug (2009), which was once recorded in the desert and produced by Josh Homme. The fast song at the time was given a slower version, in the elegant style of it The Car.

In a spacious arrangement, supplemented by three extra musicians, Arctic Monkeys created an undertone of musical excitement with every song. Songs were played from all albums (most from AM from 2013), and they closed with the recently rediscovered by a young audience on TikTok ‘505’, from 2007. Striking was the guitar solo at the drawn-out end of ‘Body Paint’, in which Jamie Cook delivered a beautiful, conversational tone reminiscent of George Harrison’s.

Arctic Monkeys now belongs to the category of ‘classic British bands’, a category with a small increase. Is Editors included? muse? Probably not. Arctic Monkeys have an edge over others thanks to their steady development, and precisely because they are allowed to trip. The performance at the most recent Lowlands festival was not received enthusiastically by everyone; the musical twist on the album Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino (2018) sounded forced at the time. But precisely from that impetus a new future emerged, without forgetting the past.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b2Kwd95HIs

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