With a remarkably large and dedicated fanbase in Southern California, the Arctic Monkeys play three sold-out shows at the Inglewood arena this weekend.
Take away the legends – Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, out you go! Set aside the pop stars and art rockers – Harry Styles, Radiohead, shoo!
The biggest and best British rock band today, at least as far as Southern California is concerned, is the Arctic Monkeys, who kicked off three sold-out nights at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Friday, Sept. 29 with proof positive of that somewhat reckless and highly subjective claim.
I know, I know, you’ve got your own favorites. But I think I’m right.
Sorry, I do.
Not quite 20 years into their career, long enough to be established, but still far from the gentle drift of nostalgia, the Arctic Monkeys do rock and roll – indie rock, post-Britpop, garage rock, define it how you want – with a thrilling artistic vitality like few other British bands of their size today.
Size matters: The Arctic Monkeys sold out the Kia Forum for three nights on The Car Tour this weekend. In 2018, they sold out the Hollywood Bowl twice. This for a band whose biggest single in the United States, 2013’s “Do I Wanna Know?” raced all the way up the charts to, let’s see, No. 70.
And what you do with it matters more: If you compare the band’s most recent record, 2022’s “The Car,” with its 2006 debut, “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I Am Not,” the artistic growth is dramatic and obvious. That doesn’t always work with fans, and yes, there’s always a contingent who don’t want their band to ever change.
Not at the Forum on Friday, though, as fans cheered and sang along to the new stuff almost as much as they did to the old.
After a fine opening set by the Irish band Fontaines D.C., the Arctic Monkeys arrived on stage with “Sculptures of Anything Goes,” one of five tracks off “The Car” the band mixed into a show that spread 21 songs over an hour and 35 minutes. Its slower grooves placed singer Alex Turner’s croon in the foreground, as the rest of the band – guitarist Jamie Cook, bassist Nick O’Malley, drummer Matt Helders, and three touring musicians – built bombastic beats behind his vocal.
Turner remains a terrific front man. In a black suit, white shirt unbuttoned too low for the office, lightly tinted sunglasses, and a messy mop of hair, his style is classic rock star, more Bryan Ferry or Nick Cave than the be-denimed and T-shirted masses.
With the new songs more laid-back, piano-based numbers, the band smartly used them to bookend the show – opening the main set, slowing things midway through the show, then closing the main set and kicking off the encore.
That left plenty of room to fill with the faster rock tracks, such as the rapid race of “Brianstorm” and swinging rhythms of “Snap Out Of It,” which followed the show-opener and had most of the crowd singing along on its chorus.
As for the crowd: It’s interesting to try to figure out who the Southern California Arctic Monkeys fan is. It’s me, a fan of the literate lyrics that Turner spills out in his northern English-accented vocals. It’s also my daughter and fans like her in their early 20s who’ve found their own meaning in the rock and roll stories the Monkeys play.
And similar to how Morrissey is embraced in Southern California and Spanish-speaking countries in the Western Hemisphere, there’s a huge contingent of Latino fans in the crowd. I’m not qualified to say for certain, but there’s something in Turner’s dapper attire, his weary, lovelorn lyrics, and the dramatic arrangements of the music that appeals here.
Add to that the fact that for a number of years all four of the Arctic Monkeys had homes in Los Angeles – at least some, including Turner, have since moved back to England – and there was definitely a hometown vibe in the air on Friday.
Highlights of the first half of the show included “Teddy Picker,” with its surf guitar lines flowing straight into the raucous “Crying Lightning.” The band’s 2013 album “AM” featured six songs in the set, with the slinky vibe of “Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?” paired back to back with the rocker “Arabella.”
“The View From the Afternoon” and “Knee Socks” both showed off the indie garage sound of earlier songs, while the new album’s “There’d Better Be a Mirrorball” brought the show back down gently, though the actual mirror ball above the stage only showed up to scatter shards of light across the stage and around the arena in the final bars. (It did stick around to sparkle and shine all throughout the following “505,” for all you mirror ball fans keeping score at home.)
The main set wrapped up with “Do I Wanna Know?” and its slinky earworm of a guitar line, and “Body Paint,” a standout from “The Car,” which started slowly with piano before jumping into rock and roll furor for the finish.
The three-song encore included “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor,” one of the band’s best-loved songs, and “R U Mine?” The answer to that question is mostly definitely yes. This weekend at the Forum, everyone is the Arctic Monkeys’.
When: Friday, Sept. 29
Where: Kia Forum, Inglewood
