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A is for Arctic Monkeys live

Click here for my Pitchfork post (more photos)

In just minutes over one hour, Arctic Monkeys completed their 20 song set - all without any conversation with the audience, just song after song, back to back, with a rare pause in between to tune a guitar.

Only one band can get away with that, and that is Arctic Monkeys.

I was kind of disappointed they didn't play my two favorite tracks - 'Who the Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys' and 'Vampires', but C'est la Vie (as the Juan MacLean says 'the Mexicans say") as they did play 'Still Take You Home' as their third song (included in my birthday podcast post) and 'View From the Afternoon' and of course 'A Certain Romance', though that's such a predictable set closer of theirs. I think I've seen them twice where that hasn't been their set closer, but I'm not 100% that it wasn't on those two nights. Will have to dig out the setlists I saved.

I remember a time when they used to arrive on stage to the sound of drummer Matt's choice of rap, but no longer. The audience was treated to a collection of 50's and 60's tunes. 'Alfie' was the last track to play before the house lights went down.

(lens flare and a stare)

If there is ever a band not to miss live, it is Arctic Monkeys. Seriously. Their cocksure attitude makes it apparent they know exactly what they're doing, and gives off the vibe that if you can't follow along, it's your loss. I remember Sasquatch was the first time I ever saw them play to an American crowd and I was sure it'd turn people off, but it didn't - even when they called some people in the audience ugly.

This was the very first time ever that the audience's singing along to the intro and outro of 'When the Sun Goes Down' didn't overwhelm Alex's vocals. When I first saw them, in July 2005, their first real single hadn't even come out - it was a sold out crowd entirely off the back of the internet (NME had only made a small mention of them at that point) and everyone knew every single word to every single song, but really took control of the concert during 'When the Sun Goes Down'. I have a habit of recording different audiences singing along to that track - I recorded it the first 3 times I saw them as their press built and after their album was released and it's fun to hear the difference and wonder how much it has to do with hype, versus the genuine underground enthusiasm that propelled it in the very beginning.

The venue wasn't sold out. Last time I saw them at the Roseland, it was.
The audience responded to every song, but really responded to tracks from the last album -with dancing and hand-clapping without any encouragement from the band.

Under their lights, everything looked beautiful.

It's been two times in the past week I've had conversations regarding the state of Arctic Monkey's second album - first with Simon from Klaxons, and then with Luke from the Kooks, who I chatted with right before heading down to catch this set.
They have the songs, but where are the hits?
But I love that that isn't their priority with this album
I like how they (seem to) know their album is difficult (ie it doesn't have that easy and instant cohesiveness of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not) for a good majority of their pop-consuming listeners and they don't care. When I listened to it, what I got was they made this album because they could, but not because it was easy -because it isn't.

We're having the same discussion over on my flickr, join in.

Setlist:
If You Found this it's Probably too Late
Brianstorm
Still Take You Home
Dancing Shoes
Ritz to the Rubble
Balaclava
Fake Tales
You Probably Couldn't See For the Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me
Teddy Picker
D is for Danger (I loved the vocal trade between Alex and Matt)
Do Me a Favour
Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor
Circus
Old Yellow Bricks
If You Were There
View From the Afternoon
Flourescent Adolescent
When the Sun Goes Down
Leave Before the Lights
Certain Romance

'Put Your Dukes Up John' Arctic Monkeys MP3 (cover of Liverpool's the Little Flames, who they rave about in the interview link below)

My neck and shoulders still hurt from dancing so much to Arctic Monkeys. So much so that no matter the amount of Advil, the pain cannot be relieved.

Relive the other six times I've seen them:
NotGL: Glasgow July 2005
Youtube: Glasgow October 14th 2005 (very short and crappy video I shot)
Flickr: Glasgow January 27th 2006 (note who made a comment on it)
Flickr: Edinburgh January 28th 2006
Flickr: Sasquatch Festival 2006 (I was only allowed to shoot one song)
and Portland May 2006 (actually, I didn't bother to ever upload my photos)

My audio interview with them when they still toured in a van, not a bus

I took pictures of Domino's UK campaign for their last album. Here is one. Note the commenter is signed to the same label.

Then we drove down the street and across the river to catch the Kooks. That recap coming up.

I totally only caught the very last song of BYOP's set at this show :(

Arctic Monkeys Blast from the Past!-Mercury Prize Interview

Listen to them predict their Mercury Prize luck back in July 2005.

I recorded this interview with Matt and Andy before their gig at King Tut's in Glasgow on July 31st 2005. This is one of my favorite interviews, not only because of the heights they soon achieved, but also because of the many topics and opinions we touched on. Where else would I have found out they were a Blink 182 cover band when they started? And the fact that Laurence Bell of Domino approached them just as they were signing on the dotted line with another label. And ask them if they'd do a Les Savy Fav and release an album like Inches. Or that they found out about their record deal offers via text at work? Listen to me gawk at them pulling crowd of 1000 ha! They kind of were too when we talked about the album's release date. My times have changed. . .

Download Mercury Music Prize segment (MP3)

Download Entire Interview -25 minutes 52 seconds (MP3)

Two notes:
I posted the audio on the Arctic Monkeys forum and wow did they hate me! They didn't seem to realize that I, the poster, was the one on tape, but they really hated my American accent, and hated all the yeahs and uh huhs.
And yeah-if you listen to the full interviews-I know a lot of people have heard of Les Savy Fav, but none of their core fans at the time

NME: Arctic Monkeys win 2006 Mercury Music Prize

Oh no they Didn't: Looking heinous chic at ceremony

Related entry: 'Catch It'- Caught it and jumped on a bandwagon too. . .

'Catch It'- Caught it and jumped on a bandwagon too. . .

On this day. . . 31 July 2005.

On this day exactly a year ago, I saw both Arctic Monkeys and Test Icicles; same day, different concerts. And just before both bands truly took off.
First act of the day was Arctic Monkeys, with whom I was having a sit down chat for my rapidly apparent ill-fated magazine Toaster. As drummer Matt sauntered around the venue pointing out all the signs that had misspelled their name (skipping the first 'c' in arctic) their cock-sure attitude made itself apparent quickly, but with little indication of what was soon to await in terms of attention. We took a seat in their van, sitting with bassist Andy. Asking them both questions over the course of a half an hour, Matt answered them all, with Andy chiming in once or twice, only for Matt to restate exactly what he'd just said. Andy seemed content in that, staying fully involved, even if only on the sidelines.
We then took five disastrous/ miraculous photos, disastrous in the fact that once all were united their attitude went beyond cock sure, and became not stand-offish, but something similar as they became quick to critique and eventually just walk away (in Jamie's case). Wanna read exactly what happened? Check my old blog
And miraculous in the fact that one got picked up by NME for a half page feature, earning me a desperately needed 150 pounds three months later.
All with a shitty (after I got my hands on it) little 3.1 megapixel camera I borrowed from a friend. Wanna pretend to be a photographer? It's that easy. Now I have a good camera and all, but that 3.1 with a 30 second delay in between photos got me in NME again, Vice, and the Test Icicles album booklet. No one took it seriously, hence my upgrade.
I immediately went down to the internet cafe to vent about the interaction over email with Carrie and send the shots off to NME who I hadn't communicated with since November. I was thinking whether or not I should still see them as I had never been in that situation with a band before-them being that rude.
Before the show that night, their tour manager alerted me that there was someone else attempting to get on that night's guest list using Toaster as the backing publication. He kept him on.
I did go and since I had a plus one and no one to go with, I put a postcard at the bar with my mobile number for anyone who wanted one. No one took up the offer until about four songs in I got a text.
The show was unlike anything I had ever witnessed-hysteria in a controlled environment-
girls pulling out their hair, screaming until delirious, tears in their eyes and fully in response to the music as let's be honest, the band aren't really anything to write home about looks wise, or at least they weren't then-no one was paying attention to anything but the music.
The audience sang along to every single word-this is before first single, before the non-stop NME coverage, just solely based on the internet and I was expecting excitement, but not to the extrememist levels I witnessed and just the singing along to every word to songs that had never even made their way onto radio.
The dedication was wholly unbelievable.
I tried explaining the scene to Jamin and Rhys in a hotel room after a similar event at a Be Your Own Pet concert months later, but I wasn't able to articulate the differences, that while subtle, did exist, and what I attempted to describe sounded just as though I was describing their show, but their was somethign different between the Arctic Monkey crow and the Be Your Own Pet crowd. I'd say a lot of it had to do with the interaction between the crowd and th eband. With Be Your Own Pet, the audience seemed fully involved in the show; while not on stage, the audience's excitement was partially responsible for inciting the band and further fueling their live show as opposed to Arctic Monkeys, who didn't seem to be noticably feeinf off the frenzied energy. Just performing int he same way they would at any venue, in front of any crowd, whether or not they were screaming, with a very controled demenor-the exact opposite of that of their crowd.
If turned black and white, it would be hard to discern whether it was Beatlemania of the 60's or Arctic Monkeys mania.
At the end, the security were grabbing girls by the seat of their pants (as in underwear) and skirts, attempting to over haul the dicapitated stage area and legions more climbing over barriers in attempt to grab much a coveted set list (I got one, but not in that manner)
At a show a few nights later, I began speaking with a security guard from that night, and he said a security meeting was called right after the concert and it was discussed that King Tut's did not enough security, even though it was the most security the venue had ever had for a concert.
The band escaped out the back door as I ran down to the Clyde river to catch Test Icicles midnight show at the Deathkill 4000 club night at the Barfly.

I got there just in time as they took to the upstairs stage (played by Arctic Monkeys a few months earlier at a show that I hadn't managed to get guest listed for) and it soon became apparent that wow!-this was going to be way different than Arctic Monkeys. First Dev's and Sam's shared pink guitar blew, so there was a pause while they tried to fix it. Shortly after they cranked the keyboard, which Sam then played with his foot in an attempt to replace the ailing guitar I guess . . . Meanwhile, all along the ipod (though it sounded like a shitty tape) with their backing bass and drums was skipping.
Singing out of key to the nth degree, while wandering around on stage as if they didn't want to be there, it just continued to get worse and worse to the point where not only could you not laugh with them, you couldn't even manage to laugh at them it was so bad. I typically imagine most awkward situations as cable access-like you're supposed to laugh at them, but the situation was too brutal for that-they were just SO bad! Soon Raary's guitar began to act up and was ditched while Dev spent ten minutes questioning the assembled audience of over 40 about their musical tastes in relation to Lil' Jon and MCR (new record October 24th!) They then got it together enough to play 'Catch It' after which Sam stepped to the front of the stage and instructed the audience to clap as he did so himself unenthusiastically. So many times I thought they should've just stopped, packed it in, and called it a day due to all the problems as opposed to muddy their previous and future perceptions to the audience that was there. Rather than spoil their opinion of you with this bad gig, just stop and reschedule. They barely managed to play four shittastic songs out of a thirty minute set.
I left completely unfulfilled, but having witnessed two performances I wouldn't forget. I was completely unaware of what I had just witnessed of Test Icicles. Instead of being all the things I thought they should be, they were the complete opposite-which is exactly as they should be! Why go to see a show and get exactly what you were expecting-a show that any band could perform. There are a lot of concerts I leave thinking "wow-that was a great show," but if each band had the exact same set list to one and other, there would be little to differentiate the sets, as the set list would likely play to creating the same audience interaction. Test Icicles performed a show only they could perform. Test Icicles also completely did their own thing more so than other band I have ever seen, and probably ever will see as there show was different in every single way to every rock show I've seen. While I can come back from Be Your Own Pet in Glasgow and say: "That's the best most energetic live show I will see in the next 20 years" their show would still not be as different to other live shows as Test Icicles, because one-they performed songs as most rock shows do, and with Test icicles they threw everything away that a show "should" be made of and completely did their own thing. They went the opposite route than Arctic Monkeys did earlier in creating an unforgettable show.
(You also became instantly personally invested in them, as many of their fans seemed to be-seemingly buying tickets to shows, just to have a chance at witnessing new lows as did sections of attendees who were clearly fans)

Months later I would be the new employee at Scottish Power's Cathcart campus and my trainer would acknowledge that he too had been at that performance, though he took much more anyway from it than I initially did-apparently loving every moment, which I do now.
The next day, going over the Test Icicles photos with Leigh, we noticed how one would be looking like they were on the brink of suicide in the background of every photo, but their shows only continued to be as haphazard, insanely and pathetically reaching the realm of greatness.
Only in reflection did I realize the brilliance of their performance.

Wanna read the myspace blog entry I wrote the very next day? Excerpted after the jump

Arctic Monkey's bassist gets cold shoulder

NME vs. behind the scenes at Pitchfork

So the "truth" about the split has come out in NME today, but is it accurate? Well, that's open for interpreatation. . . Select sections from the article:

"... frontman Alex Turner put it down to touring - but revealed the band are all still good pals with him. He said: "I sent him a message yesterday actually, telling him to have a good one and that."

The article, not contradicting the previous excuse of tour fatigue, continues to imply an air of camaraderie until towards the end with perhaps the more accurate passage:

"I mean, it's a difficult thing to explain, I don't think anyone will really understand this except us three and Andy."

Well after posting a live featured review, Pitchfork received a call from Arctic Monkeys North American publicist Chloe Walsh of Press Here, telling them to change the photo to one that included the current three (of which none-exist-only ones of the four), as the one (taken by me) they featured front page included ex-member Andy Nicholson. I mean I don't know, but many bands continue to use the publicity shots with an old member until new ones can be re-shot (how have Arctic Monkeys not done this yet if they're so adamant to sick their publicist on a site?) And it's especially enjoyable how he was in the second version, but cut out. I don't know. . . it's kind of creepy
Before:

After:

NME: Arctic Monkeys reveal reason behind bassist's departure