In the past decade or so, rock was supposedly declared dead for good, but Arctic Monkeys and their fans seem to have either not gotten the memo or don’t care. While obituaries were being written for the genre and an attempt was made to rebrand it as “guitar music” (ugh), the British band rose to occasion to claim the rock ’n’ roll mantle — thanks in large part to the axis of NME readers, Tumblr fangirls, and a Josh Homme co-sign, culminating in the band’s critically acclaimed fifth album, 2013’s primal AM.
For some reason, the band has since pivoted to the more “adult” sounds of soul, funk, and baroque pop, dropping the sleepy Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino in 2018 and the even sleepier The Car in 2022. On its latest tour, which included a sold-out stop at Pine Knob on Tuesday, the quartet has swelled to an eight-piece to help flesh out its live sound, set against the splashy backdrop of a sleek mid-century modern-inspired stage with a large screen showing grainy ’70s-style video footage of the band performing and a giant disco ball with the words “ARCTIC MONKEYS” emblazoned on it.
Despite the sonic shift, frontman Alex Turner remains compelling and charismatic, clad in a suit and sunglasses and striking poses. The band has always threaded the needle of merging headbanging riffs and absurd, wordy lyrics like “how you like to aggravate the ice-cream man on rainy afternoons” that you can somehow still sing along to with almost a straight face. Still, it all works, a testament to the niche the band has carved for itself over its 20-plus-year career.
But the show’s best moments, of course, were the occasions when the band pared down to its core four, playing hits from its early albums and AM, including the scorching closer “R U Mine?” — even if the latter veers close to Black Sabbath plagiarism. Hey, Ozzy wasn’t doing it anymore, anyway.
Apparently an Irish band called Fontaines D.C. opened the show, but we didn’t get to see them — because the allegedly 30-minute trip from the suburbs of Detroit to the venue took two hours. At least it wasn’t as bad as the fiasco with the Cure earlier this summer, but what’s the deal with Pine Knob?
