Live Music News & Reviews

Arctic Monkeys played a warm-up for their Lollapalooza performance at Chicago’s intimate Metro on Friday 7 August. The venue, which has a capacity of just 1,100, reminded me a little of London’s now defunct Astoria, with its dingy ground floor and balcony upstairs. A perfect venue for the Monkeys then, and I was really looking forward to seeing them showcase their new songs.

The Arctic Monkeys came onstage at around midnight to an eager crowd, Josh Homme playing the eerie organ intro of Pretty Visitors. This song features the classic line “Which came first the chicken or the dickhead?” and some heavy riffing, a statement that the Monkeys are going through a metamorphosis after their recent desert sessions, not just in their music either, as all band members with the exception of drummer Matt Helders now sport straggly rock star hair. 

Following Pretty Visitors there was little let up as they launched into 3 driving classics. This House is a Circus is the song on Favourite Worst Nightmare which indicated most clearly the direction the Arctic Monkeys were heading, and tonight the crowd sang back the chorus “Like a search for murder clues…in dead man’s eyes”.  This was superb stuff, the pounding drum intro of Brianstorm coming next. After a brief breather, Alex Turner introduced the next song as an old one - and proceeded to launch into a great version of Still Take You Home - is it really only 4 years old?

After Da Frame 2R they played another new one, Dangerous Animals. In my opinion this is one of the weaker tracks on Humbug, it lacks a tune and I find the chorus of D.A.N.G.E.R.O.U.S. a bit irritating, but it does contain the classic line “Let’s make a mess lioness”. Crying Lightning followed, one of the best songs on Humbug with a superb meaty chorus which keeps reappearing. The sound in the Metro was great, very loud. Turner was now fully warmed up, engaging the crowd, “Is Chicago ready for bed yet?”, before playing the unmistakable chords of Fluorescent Adolescent, which featured a bonus verse sung tenderly over strummed chords before segueing back into a slow version of the chorus before all the instruments came back in for a grand finale.

Cornerstone is one of the more accessible tracks on the new album, apparently written by Turner in an afternoon, a sweet love song with a twist in the tale as he searches for a girl and chances upon her sister “You can call me anything you like”. The patient crowd were then rewarded with frantic versions of View From The Afternoon and Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, which had the crowd shaking the tiny venue to its foundations.

The Doors-esque groove of Potion Approaching gave things a seedy turn, before If You Were There Beware, with its superb outro “I don’t know what it is that they want, but I haven’t got it to give”. An unnecessary cover of Nick Cave’s Red Right Hand followed, the Monkeys haven’t done covers before and I was not sure why they insisted on playing this tonight, as they would the following day at Lollapalooza, but it is firmly in their setlist for now. The euphemism-heavy My Propeller features lines such as “My Propeller, won’t spin, and I can’t get it started on my own” and “have a spin on my propeller” and is one of the better new songs live, with its machine gun riff.   

The small crowd were then treated to a rare live outing of the tender Only Ones Who Know from FWN, prompting a mass singalong to lines such as “I hope you’re holding hands by New Year’s Eve, they made it far too easy to believe, that true love can’t be achieved these days” before closing with the driving bass of Do Me A Favour.

There was no way the crowd were going to let them retire to their no doubt squalid dressing room, and true enough they returned with Secret Door, so obviously about Turner’s girlfriend Alexa Chung, (”Fools on parade cavort and carry on, for waiting eyes, that you would rather be beside than in front of, but she’s never been the kind to be hollowed by the stares”), who is evidently happier in the public eye than Turner himself, and featuring a lovely chorus of “Fools on parade”. Perennial set closer 505 was as good as it always is, this time with Homme rather than Turner manning the organ, allowing the lead singer to lay down his guitar and awkwardly hold on to the mic stand. Alex Turner revealed recently that he had wanted the band to have another frontman, and whilst he is obviously not comfortable in that role, who else could sing his songs? A great show then, the new songs will take some getting used to and aren’t as instantly catchy as previous Monkeys songs, but they have real bite. Humbug seems to be a transitional album, and where they go from here will be very interesting. You have to applaud them for not resting on their laurels. 
 

Setlist
Pretty Visitors
This House Is A Circus 
Brianstorm
Still Take You Home
Da Frame 2R
Dangerous Animals
Crying Lightning
Fluorescent Adolescent / Only You Know
Cornerstone
The View From The Afternoon
I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
Potion Approaching
If You Were There, Beware
Red Right Hand
My Propeller
Only Ones Who Know
Do Me A Favour
Encore:
Secret Door
505