Passionate about the present and unashamed of the past, Arctic Monkeys gave MEO Kalorama one of their best concerts in Portugal
It was two or three minutes to eleven at night when, on the big stage of the new Lisbon festival, the voice of Mike Skinner, aka The Streets, fell silent, and the ambient music (no offense to the classic ‘Turn The Page’, which then heard) gave way to a sea of screams. They are the cries of a thousand homesickness, which Alex Turner, never very effusive, returning the arms, as a sign of greeting and thanks. In a straight line, in front of the stage, the man who will hear the most piropes tonight (“I love you, Alex!”, exclaims a spectator next to us), Jamie Cook on guitar and Nick O’Malley on bass. Back there, starting the idea but relentless, Matt Helders prepares his drums for the band that, 20 years ago, had the thing of exchanging Sheffield, in England, for. Half that will follow 20 Nac, one of the best Monkeys concerts in Portugal (and they will be launched there in nine hours, in the small Paradise Garage, from horaântara). With the date of who has already lived thousands of shows, but remarkable, with an already superior charm, however, remarkable in the previous passage through Portugal in 218, the British reached a castle. And they proved that, at the doors of the seventh album (“The Car”, in stores), they have a songbook so rich that all the songs are “that October”, being rightly taken on the shoulders by a delirious audience.
With a more informal look on the album that was customary during the listening session” of “Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino”, the 20th last18, Alex did not take long to give the people what the people wanted, but also to sing and, in analysis, to live. Right now, Arctic Monkeys can afford to kick off a concert with one of their biggest hits: ‘Do I Wanna Know? of bands that play in stadiums and similar venues. Before years of thinking about the great crowd of Bela Vista will start again from the injection of sensuality, the lightning ‘Brianstorm’ and, from the age, pulling the card we give for ourselves that not after being who arrives from the first, 16 concert around here, let’s see in the audience a replica of the “feet everywhere but on the ground” effect that we saw when we were all much younger. You could be at night, not more energy this past week and looking, on the album less at night, but last night for ‘The View From The After After’ or ‘From The Ritz to the Rubble’ is the same as always, infecting an ocean of people.
For decades coming from the UK, popular music has shaped ears all over the world. But not always as British rock bets managed to succeed, for lack of identification in Portugal as references or with their own approach. The son of a music lover and a lover of letters, Alex Turner managed to break this barrier, and it is impressive to see the way in which his chronicles – from the most youthful, and bursts of fire, to the ironic and contemplative – intruded into the imagination of s de another language, of citizens of another country. It’s a small empire that the Arctic Monkeys built here, we think about in ‘Crying Lightning’, and a small magic that operates when ‘Teddy Picker’ releases the energy of 80 thousand feet and 40 thousand affective memories (accounts made lightly, based on in the organization’s estimates).
In front of them, the band has people who at different ages grew up listening to these songs, and that is a kind of commitment and loyalty that cannot be betrayed. In any case, the musicians will not take a rendition for granted and will give everything to make a rete on every song. In ‘Potion Approaching’, Alex Turner, without guitar but with sunglasses, reminds us that, if in the last one he confessed that he just wanted to be one of the Strokes, in 2009, album of “Humbug”, he probably aspired to be Josh Homme, helmsman of the Queens of the Stone Age and king of desert rock. In appearance, ‘Cornerstone’ also recovers the first approximations to the party scene that, at a certain point, wanted to be Burt Bacharach). And, in the same sequence, one of the least mentioned of Arctic Monkeys – “Suck It and See”, from 2011 – showed its brilliance, through the beautiful firecracker ‘Library Pictures’ and ‘That’s Where You Were Wrong’, with the pencil sharp from Mr. Turner drawing a phrase “and suddenly the sky was scissors”.
As good a singer as a narrator, one of the frontmen discreet rock music ended up communicating perfectly with its audience, without needing to say more than half a dozen words, “thank you” being one of them. For the two songs on “Tranquility Base…”, ‘the title track and ‘One Point Perspective’ retain some laconic theatricality; the new ‘I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am’ lent a funky swagger and on ‘Knee Socks’ it was a laughing face from a sexy band that was clearly out to have fun.
Unsurprisingly, but with a bang, two of the concertfer’s hottest moments turned out to be opposite faces of the same coin. First, ‘I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor’, whose work by Bela Vista we represented in our notebook with a drawing similar to a passing jolt of 9.5 on the Richter Scale. Released 17 years ago, the first single that was then presented as a band on Myspace, proves that we can get old, but adolescence never dies, the primitive being preserved in capsules as an energy of 2 minutes and 54 seconds.
To the album – “Favourite Worst Nightmare”, from 207 – the guys had already run through the known world feelings, which and other seconds’ write another ‘505. And nothing the sharing of a party for a collective collective shiver in a crowd. Tonight, everyone wanted to add their displeasure, real or imagined, to think that Alex Turner so well chalks these lines. The seconds almost, translating the exact moment in soul of the last goodbye to god, and the most final maintenance of silence before the festival that it opens.
There is no adulation of the public, only the adulation of the public, but the band discreetly starting from the stage, shortly after, resurrecting itself, but not finding a voice again, singing in chorus. R u Mine?’. It could have been a half-gas conceptual concert, like the one by Algés in 2018, or a show in best of, but without emotion. But it was the best of both worlds, bringing together the knowledge accumulated from many trips around the planet and respect for his own catalogue, one of the strongest among the bands of his generation. If only we all knew how to age like them.
Arctic Monkeys at MEO Kalorama, Lisbon, September 2, 2022:
I want to know?
Brianstorm
get out of this
crying lightning
Teddy Picker (doesn’t play yesterday in Spain)
Potion approaching
The view from the afternoon
cornerstone
That’s where you are wrong
Library Pictures (unplayed yesterday in Spain)
Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino
Why do you only call me when you’re high?
I’m not exactly where I think I am
Do me a favor
From the Ritz to the rubble
I bet you look good on the dance floor
Knee socks
505
Encore:
one point perspective
Arabela
R u Mine?