Arctic Monkeys go wild at Stage AE

Wednesday, 19 October 2011 09:58

Written by Scott Mervis

Arctic Pittsburgh has a lot to offer concert-goers, but it’s a lousy city for Brit-rock.

Most of the bands, from Radiohead on down to Portishead, fly by on their way from New York to Chicago, or even Washington, D.C., to Cleveland.

But we have made a connection with Arctic Monkeys, who played Mr. Smalls two years ago and returned Tuesday night packing around 1,800 people into Stage AE — proving two things: there is a big market here for Brit-rock and the sizable North Shore venue was well worth the real estate.

The Monkeys, fittingly, are hard to pin down, often listed as indie-rock, post-punk revival, psychedelic rock or garage rock. The common denominator is that the Monkeys do and did rock on just about every one of their short spastic songs, driven by the slashing guitars of Alex Turner and Jamie Cook and Matt Helder’s galloping drums. The band even loves to bring songs to a complete stop and then fire them up again.

A song or two in, singer-guitarist Turner, looking cowpunk-ish in his black Western shirt, asked the crowd if they were in a good mood, but he clearly had the answer from their frenzied response, starting from the opening, “Don’t Sit Down ’Cause I Moved Your Chair,” the first single from the new album, “Suck It and See,” a return to the band’s early energetic sound after the desert-rock departure of 2009’s “Humbug.”

The surprising circle pit that formed in the center of the packed floor was in hyper mode mid-set for the one-two punch of “The View from the Afternoon” and the hit “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor,” tracks 1 and 2 from the band’s breakout debut from 2006.

The Monkeys kept it loud, tight and driving, verging into Damned-like gothic on “Pretty Visitors,” a spaghetti Western flavor on “Do Me a Favour” and hyper ska of “Flourescent Adolescent.” Even above the roar, singer’s clever wordplay managed to break through, particularly on the set-closing “When The Sun Goes Down,” during which the crowd ate up the line “He’s a scumbag, don’t you know?”

After revving everyone up, Arctic Monkeys sent them home with the dreamier mope-rock of “505.”

Dreamy certainly described opening band Smith Westerns, who take a little from George Harrison, a little from the Ramones and a touch of Phil Spector’s girl-groups to creative a gorgeous blend of melodic guitar-rock. The young Chicago group set the nocturnal mood playing in virtual darkness on a stage with illuminated banners reminiscent of “A Nightmare Before Christmas.”

The band’s shy, hipster approach didn’t rouse the crowd much, but there’s no way to be unmoved by those unstoppable melodies, and the lyrical, sometimes shoegazing guitar work was phenomenal (especially on that “Weekend” intro). As it is, the benefits of almost seeing Smith Westerns live is sharing a louder, more hard-edged take on the albums in a room full of people.