The Arctic Monkeys North American Tour officially began on August 25, 2023. The tour kicked off in The Armory in Minneapolis, MN and is set to end in the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, CA.
The Arctic Monkeys’ Car Tour was the band's first tour since their nine-leg world tour in 2019, the Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino Tour, which only came to the US for three cities. The 2023 Car Tour is the band's first proper tour of America, hitting almost every region of the States. Tickets were difficult, but possible, to obtain. I was lucky enough to get tickets, for about $105 each, seemingly the average across the States.
I attended the show at TD Garden on September 3rd. Right at the entrance chaos emerged and the merchandise stands were almost impossible to find. A big complaint about the show in general has been the band’s lack of merchandise, especially cute merchandise. Nonetheless, the stage seemed set, and since it was taking place at TD Garden, there were no seats with obstructed viewpoints.
The band's opener for the tour was The Fontaines. The Fontaines are an up-and-coming Irish band from Dublin, Ireland,hich made their outfits for the night even better: Celtics apparel. Prior to the concert, almost no one knew who they were. Although they were more heavy metal rock than chiller vibes, they fit the vibe of Arctic Monkeys pretty well and got the crowd ready for a concert.
After the opener, and a little bit of waiting, Alex Turner and the rest of the Monkeys took the stage. They opened with “Sculptures of Anything Goes,” which is a track on their newest album, The Car. Although this song set the crowd off, not very many people knew the song. For the rest of the concert, they played a nice mix of both their popular “TikTok” songs and the more niche ones for the really big fans. Most of the crowd knew songs like “Snap Out of It,” “Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High,” “505,” “R U Mine?,” and “Fluorescent Adolescent.” The set list in general featured a very good mix of songs from their discography rather than just from the album Cars.
Despite the magical mirror ball shining across the venue and Alex Turner's irresistible charm, I do have a few notes. First, there was very little to no interaction with the crowd. The most us Bostonians got from the singers were them walking over to different sides of the stage. One of the many benefits of seeing artists you love live is seeing how they are real people. We’ve seen those cute concert videos of them interacting with their fans or simply talking to the audience. I will admit we did get quite a few “Thank you Boston!” but that was about it. Second, although Mr. Turner is the true star, I almost felt guilty for how little “airtime” the rest of the band got. The cameramen barely showed the drummer, bassist, or guitarist. Third, THEY DID NOT SING “MANY WANNA BE YOURS.” This has to be one of the most disappointing factors for me. This song is super famous (meaning the whole crowd would have known it) and would have made for a perfect closing number.
Despite this, if I’m being totally honest, I’d probably go ten more times if given the chance.