Concert Review: Arctic Monkeys & Screaming Females @ House Of Blues (12/13/09)

Artist(s): Arctic Monkeys, Screaming Females
Location: House Of Blues, Boston, MA
Date: Sunday, December 13, 2009

Part I: Pre-Show Activities:
As soon as we arrived, it was pouring, so we raced through puddle after puddle. Along the way, we witness the most depressing thing to a concertgoer: lines and lines of people ahead of you. All bodies closer to the front then you. Fuck…
After some waiting outside, we made it in and at least we weren’t as far back as we were at Animal Collective. To pass the time we chatted with some fine lads (one of which bared strong resemblance to a notable Wakefield High student) about everything from college acceptances to the harsh reality of 18 + shows; this one was All Ages, which of course unleashed some fine talent. I bet that’s the one, the FBI I will nail me for lol.

Part II: Screaming Females
Chris: Well, not quite… Singing for the most part, but occasionally screaming female (the other two members were of the opposite sex) would be more apropos. They were ok, nothing special. They rocked out for a while with sledegehammer drums, powerhouse guitars, and a caterwoul sceam from the lead singer. Most of the time her vocals were high and reminded me of the voice of some Disney villian haha, no offense. I appreciated the individual parts of the songs, but overall they weren’t memorable or “stand out” numbers. They played far longer than I wanted them to.

Glen: Chris basically said what I was going to say. I’m sure if I look up more of their songs (“damn, I should have YouTube’d them”, I’ll probably develop an affinity for a few of them. That’s because I did really like a few, but in an overall picture they were kind of forgettable. At times they seemed too hard rock — which is a turn off for me.

Part III: Arctic Monkeys!
Chris: Ok, so if you’ve been to the House of Blues, at least in my experience, then you have withstood the shoving back and forth deal, resulting in enormous perspiration and lack of air to the point of leaving some attendees unconscious, and at points loss of the ability to see the show itself, at least for us 5’3 and below. Ok, well it got in the way of the music at times, but I just want to throw this out now, so I can properly critique the performance for the remainder of the review. So, in terms of music, the band was excellent. Unfortunately, they did no play that much from their debut as I hoped, but that was to be expected. They opened with a chill and mellow song, I believe it was “The Jewller’s Hands,” from their latest release, please correct me, if I am wrong. Then they exploded into “Brianstorm,” and like thunder as the song proclaims, the audience roared and entered a frenetic state of sorts for quite some time. The group went on to unleash such old and new classics as “Still Take You Home,” “My Propeller,” “Crying Lightning,” “Pretty Visiters,” “The View From the Afternoon,” and “I Bet You Look Good On the Dancefloor,” which rightfully garnered fantastic crowd response; I was pogoing my ass off! It was one of the best sing alongs that night. They slowed down for a “gentle” song in the form of “Cornerstone,” one of my new favorite monkeys’ offerings. It gave most of us a chance to breathe, relax and hear a slow, little, love song, whilst boyfriends held girlfriends and the rest of us envied them and held on to the dude beside them… kidding. The evening would end on a happy note with the beloved, fan favorite, “Fluorescent Adolescent,” this received a similar response as ‘dancefloor,’ but not as much excitement/dancing, because the song itself was slower and softer than I expected, but almost everybody in the house knew the words. Fans were greeted with a neat treat when the song suddenly transitioned into “Last Christmas,” as drummer Matt Helders took over vocal duties with black shades over his eyes, a glass of wine in his hand, he belt out the sappy lyrics to that sappy song. This digression left as quickly as it came; Helders returned to his drum set and the band smoothly transitioned back into ‘Fluorescent.’ They said goodnight and left the stage. Of course, we shouted, “Monkeys! Monkeys! Monkeys!” and naturally they returned for an encore. They started with “Secret Door,” a new favorite of mine and one of the best tracks of ’09 and finished with “505.”

Glen: I had a smashing time. Yes, at some points I couldn’t  really concentrate on the music. And that’s annoying. But for the greater part of the show, I could see the band and didn’t have to worry  about certain externalities (girl yelling that they she couldn’t breathe, another girl yelling because she lost her cell phone, etc). A big big fan of Humbug, I was quite pleased that they played quite a bit from that LP. Obviously, “Fluorescent” and “I Bet” got everyone going like Chris said. The slower jams were pretty awesome in their own right. So yeah, great shit. This was a great show, but there were some things that prevented it from being among the best. Also, fuck the Boston Herald. They called the Arctics performance “lukewarm.” Huh?

Set-List

Glen’s comments, which should be highly valued, will be arriving shortly…

Chris