Tranquility base hotel & casino
In summer time, the living’s easy. It’s the time of year where all the planning during the colder months comes to fruition and you reap the rewards. As tonight, I added one more show to the list this year. Moving the musical timeline forward, I went to see the Arctic Monkeys last night at Forest Hills Stadium. A younger band than those I’m used to seeing live surely, but make no mistake one that has a bright future. And they had the crowd with them from the opening song to the last note.
My first taste of the Monkeys came in the Spring of 2006. They were the band du jour to come out of England as their album “Whatever People Say That I Am, That’s What I’m Not” was released. I kept hearing about them but wasn’t initially convinced of how good they were. That was, I until I heard their single “I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor” and it got stuck in my head almost immediately. Not long after this, I went to Tower Records at Lincoln Center one day after my classes were done and picked up a copy of the album. From the opening song, “View From The Afternoon” all the way to the last note of “A Certain Romance”, it was hard to put down as you feel the the first person view of growing up in Sheffield, England and all the characters that come across the way.
But they faded from my view for a bit after this album, mostly as I wasn’t able to find copies of their two follow-up works, 2007’s “Favorite Worst Nightmare” and 2009’s “Humbug”. I would rediscover them with 2011’s “Suck It And See” and 2013’s “AM”. The sounds weren’t as raw as the earlier works but it was impossible to not sit and take notice at the hooks that came bursting out of the songs and I became a fan once again. Based on the performance videos of them that are on Youtube, I wanted to see them live. I tried to get tickets to the Black Keys show at MSG in 2001, where they were the opening act but it was sold out. I tried again for their own headlining show at MSG in 2014 but that was sold out as well. I was finally able to break through in March and get a ticket to last night’s show at Forest Hills Stadium.
And on this warm summer’s night, I made my way to the venue. It isn’t the first time that I’ve seen a show here, as I went to see Sigur Ros and Interpol last summer. It was a rough couple of days and I was looking forward to the evening to come as I made it to the venue’s gates. The stadium was the site of the US Open, until it moved to it’s current home at Flushing Meadows Park. But from the murals on both sides of the street that you find below the LIRR station as you walk toward the venue, all the way the the artificial tennis court on the ground and the real one that’s used for the GA ticket holders, you’re steeped in the history of the place as both a tennis venue and as a music venue. The show was slated to start at 6:45PM, with the LA band Mini Mansions opening up but the night began at 7PM as they played for 35 minutes. Their catchy, hooky synth pop and rock went over well with the slowly crowd gathering on the floor. Thankfully, the clouds and rain held off, though I got a bit of wine spilled on my t-shirt from the couple sitting in the row above me. They were nice enough to make up for it by buying me a Heinken and apologizing for the spill.
As day turned to night, it was time for the main event. At 8:15PM the lights went down and the MONKEYS sign in the background lit up as the band took the stage. The opening song happened to be my favorite track from their most recent effort, “Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino”, “Four out of Five” and once the chorus hit the whole building was singing in unison, which translated over to their next song the title track from 2007’s “Favorite Worst Nightmare”, “Brianstorm”. It was a sign of the night to come as the next hour and a half went by with a twenty song set dipping into each album but leaning heavily on tracks from their last two albums, AM and Tranquility. The set ended with a rousing rendition of their song “Arabella”. A short time later, the encore began with the opening track to the Tranquility album “Star Treatment” to bring the pace down a bit to counter the high energy of the previous six songs. Front man Alex Turner remarked to the crowd recognizing where they were: “we don’t have a tennis song, this is close enough” before playing a cover of The Strokes “Is This It” and the crowd erupted in applause. It made perfect sense for that song to be part of the set list as the first line of the song “Star Treatment” and the album itself is “I just wanted to be one of The Strokes”. The night came to an end with a spirited rendition of their track, “R U Mine?” and there wasn’t a person sitting and in the case of the chorus, not singing along to it. The sweaty, exhausted person that I was made his way home with a beaming smile on his face. For a young band trying to break North America, last night’s show proved that the band has the songs and presence to be big here as they are in the UK & Europe.
With this show in the books, there’s still one more to go in this summer concert series. The next show is on Wednesday night and it’s one that I didn’t think I would get to see given the fractious nature between band members, the Smashing Pumpkins at MSG on the Oh So Shiny & Bright Tour. One thing is for certain, I should find out the answer to the question: “If a concert happens and no one is allowed to photograph and/or take video of it, did it really happen?” After this, it will be a while before the next concert, the band Garbage at the Kings Theater on 10/27.
Live music is something I love, but sometimes that love goes overboard. But with each moment of passion, I feel a sense of joy that’s difficult to describe. The only thing that I love more with a passion is soccer and that will happen when the USMNT takes on Brazil at MetLife Stadium on 9/7. But all of this leads to the main event of the year, the trip to Portugal that’s less than two months away. When all is said and done, there’s the remainder of the year still to come and all the unknown moments that will be.
There’s still a lot to look forward to as the year continues onward and upward!