Take away the legends – Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, out you go! Set aside the pop stars and art rockers – Harry Styles, Radiohead, shoo!
The biggest and best British rock band today, at least as far as Southern California is concerned, is the Arctic Monkeys, who kicked off three sold-out nights at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Friday, Sept. 29 with proof positive of that somewhat reckless and highly subjective claim.
I know, I know, you’ve got your own favorites. But I think I’m right.
Sorry, I do.
Not quite 20 years into their career, long enough to be established, but still far from the gentle drift of nostalgia, the Arctic Monkeys do rock and roll – indie rock, post-Britpop, garage rock, define it how you want – with a thrilling artistic vitality like few other British bands of their size today.
Size matters: The Arctic Monkeys sold out the Kia Forum for three nights on The Car Tour this weekend. In 2018, they sold out the Hollywood Bowl twice. This for a band whose biggest single in the United States, 2013’s “Do I Wanna Know?” raced all the way up the charts to, let’s see, No. 70.
And what you do with it matters more: If you compare the band’s most recent record, 2022’s “The Car,” with its 2006 debut, “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I Am Not,” the artistic growth is dramatic and obvious. That doesn’t always work with fans, and yes, there’s always a contingent who don’t want their band to ever change.
Not at the Forum on Friday, though, as fans cheered and sang along to the new stuff almost as much as they did to the old.
After a fine opening set by the Irish band Fontaines D.C., the Arctic Monkeys arrived on stage with “Sculptures of Anything Goes,” one of five tracks off “The Car” the band mixed into a show that spread 21 songs over an hour and 35 minutes. Its slower grooves placed singer Alex Turner’s croon in the foreground, as the rest of the band – guitarist Jamie Cook, bassist…
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