Arctic Monkeys live in Boston

Hype is a dangerous thing in the music biz. Sure, it can make you, but few can sustain the level of hype-worthy music throughout their career before they fall back into the dustbin of history. Arctic Monkeys seem well prepped to overcome that pitfall.

Buzz doesn’t get much bigger for a band than it did for the Arctic Monkeys. Their debut, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, is the second fastest British debut album ever, and was hailed by NME as the 5th best British album of all time (yes, that list included The Beatles.) The members of Arctic Monkeys were still teens when all this was happening, which sounds like a recipe for disaster, but they prevailed, following the tremendous Whatever with the great follow-up Favourite Worst Nightmare. Their third album Humbug is due out on August 25th and that’s what brings them to Boston.

The Arctic Monkeys packed the legendary Paradise Rock Club with frothing fans anxious to hear new cuts from Humbug. They were not disappointed. I counted 6 new songs plus a cover of “Red Right Hand” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. All songs were well received and, in the age of the internet, several people already knew every word to the new songs. "Cornerstone" was excellent, and a sign of maturity, but the band’s latest single " Crying Lightning ", which was released a few weeks ago, got the best reaction of all.

I was very impressed. The previous two times I had seen Arctic Monkeys, they were great, albeit short and a bit timid when it came to improvising. Tonight, they played for close to 1:15 before their encore. They also seemed more loose and ready to explore. "Still Take You Home" featured a pretty dark jam following the second verse that seemed to be inspired by Josh Homme, who is producing the majority of Humbug.

The rest of the set was sprinkled with treasures from Whatever and Favourite and included moments where the crowd overtook vocalist Alex Turner ("I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor") and inspired mosh pits ("Brianstorm", "If You Were There, Beware".)

I left the Paradise sweaty and impressed. Arctic Monkeys are clearly maturing in front of our eyes and ear sand Humbug is sure to be great.

I did start this review talking about hype and lists, so it seems fitting that I end with a Nick Hornby-esque Top 5 list to round things out:

TOP 5 MOMENTS FROM ARCTIC MONKEYS 8/5/09 SHOW
 

1. Drummer Matt Helders. He is the driving force of the band and seeing him live is a sight to behold.
2. “If You Were There, Beware”. Probably the song of the night.
3. Alex Turner’s quip, “I guess no one’s really noticed that Jamie and I wore the same shirt by accident.” And Helder’s refusal to acknowledge the joke with a drum kick.
4. Paradise security with the fastest crowd surfing preventative measures I have ever seen. Clearly not in the mood to repeat the Bledsoe/Lane stage diving incident of ‘97 .
5. The two guys who expressively sang every lyric to every new song directly into Alext Turner’s face. You know who you are. I hope.