Credit: Otilia Dragan/Chronicle.lu

On the evening of Tuesday 4 July 2023, English alternative rock band Arctic Monkeys brought their new tour, in support of their album The Car (2022), to Luxexpo The Box Open Air in Luxembourg-Kirchberg.

The concert’s support bands were Luxembourg-based rock-pop band TUYS and Willie J Healey, an English singer-songwriter from Oxfordshire.

Formed in Sheffield in 2002, Arctic Monkeys rose to fame in 2005 with their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, which earned the title of fastest-selling album in British history. Arctic Monkeys have been performing a small run of European open-air headline shows in summer 2023, starting in Austria and ending in France, including this much-anticipated date in Luxembourg.

Despite the threatening drizzle at the beginning of the concert, the rain luckily only started after the concert ended. Arctic monkeys started on a heavy note that had the audience electrified. A large disco ball with their band name written over it hung overhead. Videos of Alex Turner and the other team members Jamie Cook, Matt Helders and Nick O'Malley were playing in the background on a loop, with simple special effects in pale and bright colours alike. Two large screens on either side of the stage provided live footage of the audience and close-ups of the performance.

Enthusiastic cheers and shouts resonated when the first notes of "Don't Sit Down Cause I've Moved Your Chair" played: 

Break a mirror, roll the dice
Run with scissors through a chip pan fire fight
Go into business with a grizzly bear
But just don't sit down 'cause I've moved your chair.

Indeed, no one was able to sit down during the entire performance. The impressively large crowd sang along, moved and danced as much as the space allowed as they held on to their cups and chips (if they had to eat, they brought the food as close to the stage as possible, to not miss a beat). 

The band (but maybe especially Alex Turner himself) tantalised the audience with the first beats, sounds or lyrics of each song, getting them to expectantly cheer and getting them ready to sing along. Masters of modulation and tension building, Arctic Monkeys’ songs often moved from low, rumbly and tawdry to a heavy, almost aggressive rock beat that swept the audience along into near-frenzy.

The audience closely followed along with "The View From the Afternoon", a song from the 2006 album Whatever People Say I am That's What I'm Not. "Crying Lightning" had fans dancing the most. Tunes rolled one after the other, with Alex Turner barely saying a word (though he did speak a little French), preferring to let the music speak for itself. The songs from their newest album The Car often sounded more melodic and understated, yet still had a haunting and engaging character.

The lighting was rather discreet, punctuating the beats in surprising pairings of colours like orange and pink, violet and turquoise with warm yellow overhead lighting flashing along with the rhythm. The lights matched the intensity of the songs and were sometimes almost completely downscaled to match the slower, darker songs’ mood. The focus was clearly on the sounds and building the ambiance.

Arctic Monkeys’ iconic "Do I Wanna Know" had the crowd singing the song for them. The concert, drawing to the end of its allotted time, ended on a high in intense guitar riffs and drum rolls. The stage went black but the crowd called them back for several minutes for an encore. "We got a couple more for you," Alex Turner said, and the audience cheered.

Finally, “There'd Better Be a Mirrorball", from The Car album, changed the mood to restful and mellow towards the end of the show. Many took out their phones’ flashlights and lit up the crowd that was, by then, already plunged in semi-darkness. The disco ball lit up after for glittering effect that wowed the audience, spreading across the entire stage.

The food and drinks tills were plentiful and well organised to avoid long waiting times, with vegetarian falafel wraps and chips available (among other things), and an easy, digitalised paying system that allowed a quick, fuss-free experience.