It’s been ten years since Arctic Monkeys released AM. And though their current tour has been billed as not a celebration of a past album, but rather a support for their latest release, 2022’s The Car, this go-round—including a weekend stint at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles—brings Arctic Monkeys’ decade-old album to mind, as a marker of where the boys from Sheffield now stand within the broader musical order.
For one, even all these years later, AM still comprises the plurality of Arctic Monkeys’ setlist. Of the 20 songs played during their second night at the Forum, eight came from a record that was released in 2013.
There was the toe-tapping, pop-oriented rhythm of “Snap Out of It”, after an opening pair of “Sculptures of Anything” and “Brianstorm”. Following the bass-heavy pairing of “Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair” and “Crying Lightning” came the acoustic-tinged “Fireside”.
In the wake of the crooning “Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino”, Arctic Monkeys embarked on a run of three AM tracks out of five. “Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?” had the sellout crowd of 17,500-plus fans shouting every word, before “Arabella” got their heads banging and feet stomping. Once the balladic “Cornerstone” and frenetic “A View From the Afternoon” were through, the band bounced back to AM for the Queens of the Stone Age-inflected “Knee Socks”.
The main set closed out with a run of six songs that was largely bereft of AM material.
That is, with one rocking exception: “Do I Wanna Know?”, the iconic riff of which fell in as the set’s penultimate pull, following “505”. After a brief break, the band came back for an encore dominated by “I Wanna Be Yours” and “R U Mine?”, with “I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor”.
That AM still features so prominently in Arctic Monkeys’ live repertoire is no accident. Ten years (and two more albums) later, it remains their seminal work in terms of style, critical acclaim, and (of course) album sales—with over three million copies sold to date.
Though AM was Arctic Monkeys’ fifth consecutive album to top the U.K. charts, it was (and remains) their biggest breakout globally. In the U.S., it’s still their highest-charting album and the only one of their seven to be certified platinum—in this case, three times—by the RIAA.
All of which is to say, AM became an inflection point in Arctic Monkeys’ career. That album truly put them on the map as rock stars, rather than just plucky punks from northern England who play surprisingly catchy music.
Now, they’re capable of not only filling arenas like the Forum (which they sold out three times in a row) or stadiums like Old Trafford and Emirates Stadium in the U.K.—not to mention headlining mega festivals like Glastonbury—but also commanding audiences of that size and scope. Not with head bangs, stage dives, and primal screams, but rather by owning and embracing the sleazy Vegas lounge singer vibes that seem to have been their destiny all along.
That they’re now capable of selling over 50,000 tickets (at well over $100 apiece, mind you) to fill the Forum in L.A. over a weekend is a testament in itself to the power that Arctic Monkeys now wield, ten years into their time as mainstream sensations. That they did so during a three-day period that saw competition from, among others, Coldplay, The Killers, and Foo Fighters—the latter two at Eddie Vedder’s Ohana Festival some 60 miles away in Dana Point—may be the most impressive data point supporting the notion of Arctic Monkeys’ place within the sonic order.
Sure, L.A. is a vast place with an insatiable appetite for live music from end to end. But drawing such substantial crowds, with youth and diversity among their hallmarks, speaks volumes of the band’s establishment among rock royalty now and for many years to come.
Check out a collection of fan-shot videos from Arctic Monkeys’ three-night Kia Forum run. The band wraps up its North American tour this weekend with a pair of shows in Mexico City before jetting off for gigs in Ireland and Northern Ireland. For tickets and a full list of tour dates head here.
Arctic Monkeys – “Do I Wanna Know?” – 9/30/23
[Video: epic02]
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