Review: Fans rock out to Arctic Monkeys
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Arctic Monkeys lead singer Alex Turner. Picture: Ellen Smith
Source: News Corp Australia
IF you’ve been to a music festival in the last few years you’ll have witnessed these days you just need a laptop, pre-prepared dance beats and some fist pumping to be a headline act.
So watching British band Arctic Monkeys filling Rod Laver Arena on Friday night, playing actual musical instruments very loudly in front of a predominately young crowd, was a welcome victory for rock music.
The band, all aged 28, have gained a second wind of popularity with last year’s brilliant album, AM, their fifth release in seven years.
Lead singer Alex Turner performs at Rod Laver Arena. Picture: Ellen Smith
Source: News Corp Australia
So strong is the record that the band played nearly every track from it. And so popular the record is that even the album’s slower moments received the kind of immediate cheers you’d usually expect to greet their biggest hits.
It’s always pleasing when an excellent album receives the attention it deserves.
And it’s heartwarming seeing teenagers getting a dose of brand new, old-fashioned rock and roll — it’s hard not to notice the influx of newer Monkeys fans.
Most of them were in the sweaty, heaving masses turning the chair-free floor of Rod Laver into a very large moshpit.
Since the Monkeys were last in Australia in 2009, Alex Turner has actually become a frontman. Where once reserved, he’s now found his inner David Bowie, Jarvis Cocker and Nick Cave.
Excited fans at Rod Laver Arena. Picture: Ellen Smith
Source: News Corp Australia
There’s songs like the near metal Arabella he’s now comfortable enough to not even play guitar for the first half and prowls the stage instead.
Put simply, he’s now almost as entertaining as his lyrics have been from the start.
It really was a showcase of AM, with older (by their standards) songs I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, 505, Brianstorm, Crying Lightning and Fluorescent Adolescent spread between the likes of Do I Wanna Know, No. 1 Party Anthem, One for the Road, Snap Out of It, Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High and RU Mine.
At their biggest headline show in Melbourne, the foursome (augmented by an extra guitarist and keyboardist and a crucial tambourine player) proved they are in their element in large venues.
Let’s not leave it as long next time gents. You have a genre to protect.
