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Review & setlist: Arctic Monkeys ride at full speed at TD Garden
Alex Turner is the driver of his career-spanning, hit-filled set on “The Car” Tour.
Five years after they last rocked the TD Garden on their sci-fi lounge act supporting concept album Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino, British rockers Arctic Monkeys returned Sunday night in a blaze of flashing lights and mirrorball glow. In the years since their last North American run, they released their seventh studio album, The Car, whose cinematic offerings fused soft rock noir with orchestral dramatics, polarizing fans in its reception. While this tour may have been scheduled in support of the record, only three tracks off the album made the cut, suggesting the band doesn’t blame their fans for simply loving the old material more.
Except for the switch of a bassist during their first album cycle, Arctic Monkeys have accomplished the rare feat of retaining each of the band’s original four members, with no deviance during their nearly 20-year career. The band — compromised of Alex Turner (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Jamie Cook (guitar, keyboards), Nick O’Malley (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Matt Helders (drums, backing vocals) — have forgone any formula that trademarked their original sound. Trading pounding percussion, fast spit, Sheffield-lilted lyrics, and blazing riffs for subdued orchestral choirs and high falsettos, Arctic Monkeys have proved their breadth of inspiration is as far reaching as the countries they travel.
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Pioneers of the Brit rock movement of the 00’s, frontman Alex Turner was quickly launched into rock-god stature — a position that he has approached with casual dominance and cheek. Today, he still commands his crowd with a laidback guise, aware that the simple glance or flick of the wrist could send fans into a tizzy (and he certainly exercises this power).
Arctic Monkeys were joined with support from Irish post-punk band Fontaines D.C., a group that hold a live-wire and semi-unsettling energy that the Monkeys displayed early into their own career. The feeling of not knowing what was going to happen next tantalized fans and prepped them for the career-spanning set to follow.
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The Car album’s “Sculptures Of Anything Goes” opened the set with the expected dramatics of dystopian sounds and heavy bass. In a moment of rarity, Turner’s signature sunglasses failed to stay on for more than the first song— the night’s first indication of the frontman’s increasing maturity. Eager to shift into heavier escapades, the band quickly followed up by launching into 2007 hit “Brianstorm,” a dizzying romp that sent the audience into a frenzy of screams and bobbing bodies.
Accompanied by three extra musicians to fill out their live sound, the band excelled at creating a unique atmosphere for each era, as the setlist compiled hits from each album. The additions added extra warmth and texture to tracks like “Fireside,” as a second drummer paralleled Matt Helders, and “Teddy Picker,” where added percussion and guitars aided its riveting uproar.
Over the past few years, Arctic Monkeys have traded reckless serenades for calculated restraint. Gone are the days that they assault with the one-two-punch of Turner’s hyperbolic lyricism and head-spinning guitars. No longer content to repeat their same jovial expeditions in their studio recordings, they still ascertain the ability to rock out in a live setting. Cuts from their first three albums exemplified this throughout the set.
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One thing that has yet to waver is Turner’s enigmatic showmanship. There are few frontmen today who lean into the self-aware camp of rock stardom as effortlessly as Turner. His antics are often intently humorous, especially during moments where he dramatizes his own lyrics. During “One Point Perspective” his shtick has him pause, lost in his train of thought before carrying on his jazzy crooning.
An inscrutable force, it’s often hard to distinguish the Alex Turner show from Arctic Monkeys as a whole, especially during their newer material that poses Turner as a hallmark entertainer with a penchant for theatrics. It’s easy to envision him in a Vegas setting, entertaining a smoky room with a drink in hand. “Here’s a song from seventeen or so summers ago,” he speak-sang like the expert conductor, before launching into “The View From the Afternoon.”
Aside from brief banter to fill moments of silence between songs, there was very little chat, but that’s to be expected from the Brits and fans were more than okay with that. Turner’s idiosyncrasies characterize each song and certainly contribute to his quietness, preferring random acts such as dramatically sauntering across different areas of the stage to interact with neglected sections and reaching both arms out, as if casting a spell or asserting his power over the eager crowd.
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While aware of his magnitude, he still appears to be on autopilot, effortlessly ripping through each song with the ease of a skilled musician, yet perhaps the monotony of performing their earliest hits for the umpteenth time. The band are content playing in the shadows more often than not, but are highlighted during major solos.
Their pinnacle Platinum-selling album AM boasts most of the band’s commercial hits and remains a staple in their live sets, serving as the largest chunk of material. Fan favorites “Arabella,” “Do I Wanna Know” and “R U Mine?” framed the show’s highlights and transported fans into a 2013 haze of cool, desert rock swagger.
Tender throwback “Cornerstone” produced a sea of blinding flashlights, yet held an air of karaoke to it, in part to Turner’s slowed vocals that lagged just a beat behind the band— a frequent fact of the night that felt somewhat purposeful in his riffing and renditions of their oldest material, taking creative liberty on changing lyrics. Not allowing these moments to linger, the band jarred you back with the raucous “Pretty Visitors,” where Turner belted out the lyrics and raised his mic stand into the air to sway in time with the sludgy beat.
An intriguing lyricist, Turner composes each of the band’s tracks with careful dictation that’s equal parts societal commentary, personal strife, and utter nonsense. Poetic existentialism (“But I crumble completely when you cry”) laces Monkeys works together, begging fans to scream along at levels that rivaled the Garden’s sound system. Much of the set was attributed to these lyrical moments where fans could scream their favorite lines with rapture.
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Breakout hit, “I Bet You Look Good On the Dancefloor” sent the already rowdy crowd into a state of utter mayhem where shirts were removed and friends climbed onto each other’s shoulders. To further fans’ delight, “Fluorescent Adolescent” has come out of retirement this tour and returned to the setlist after years of omission. The band played it with a fresh perspective, opposed to churning it out as just another song.
“Body Paint” closed out the main set in a memorable composition which included an extended outro. Cultivating a sonic canvas that burst into an array of colorful sounds and climaxing riffs, the songs elevated Arctic Monkeys into a new level of rock-colossus.
The band returned for three encore songs, in which the glimmering disco ball adorned with the band’s name dropped from the ceiling and cast a mesmerizing sparkle on the sold-out stadium. Performing the fitting “There’d Better Be a Mirrorball,” followed by “505” and “R U Mine?” the night ended on a triumphant high buzzing with adrenaline and an ever-present reminder of why Arctic Monkeys have sustained their high level of success despite a few commercially-unsuccessful albums in recent years.
Alex Turner holds his reign as a captivating front man, oozing cool, command, and just the right amount of weirdness to hold audience captive and unsuspecting all these years on. For fans who are only interested in hearing the hits, The Car Tour is a vehicle cruising at full speed, blasting a never-ending stream of the Monkey’s greatest.
Setlist for Arctic Monkeys at TD Garden, Sept. 3, 2023:
- Sculptures of Anything Goes
- Brianstorm
- Snap Out of It
- Teddy Picker
- Crying Lightning
- Fireside
- One Point Perspective
- Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?
- Arabella
- The View From the Afternoon
- Cornerstone
- Pretty Visitors
- Fluorescent Adolescent
- Knee Socks
- Do Me a Favour
- Do I Wanna Know?
- I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
Body Paint
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Encores:
- There’d Better Be a Mirrorball
- 505
- R U Mine?
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