Arctic Monkey's (review)

Alex Turner is finally frontman. Arctic Monkeys’ lead singer, principal lyricist, and true songwriting wunderkind, who emerged fully formed at the tender age of 19, has spent nearly a decade turning out evocative odes to after-hours bacchanalia seemingly in his sleep. Yet as a stage performer, Turner’s body never quite seemed as comfortably loose as his tongue. But just recently Turner has displayed a sudden distaste for playing guitar in concert, and when he ditched the axe for two songs at Sunday night’s sold out engagement at the Kool Haus in Toronto, the first night of their North American tour in support of the just-released and extremely well-received AM, it became clear that Arctic Monkeys have reached a new stage in their ongoing (if not quite complete) evolution into the best band in the world. As the band tore through sexy new song Arabella and deep cut Pretty Visitors, Turner stalked the stage. With hips swinging, mic in hand, and his hair slicked upwards into a Beatles-in-Hamburg-style quiff, his liberation from the centre stage spot to which he’s been chained since the band began suggests Turner has truly begun to enjoy himself up there.

Queens of the Stone Age

Queens of the Stone Age played Toronto four times between 2007 and 2011. The first three stops were on various Era Vulgaris tours, the last was to promote a reissue of QOTSA’s self-titled debut album. So until the band appeared at Air Canada Centre on Tuesday, it had been six years since Toronto had seen anything approximating new material in a live setting. But Tuesday’s show wasn’t just any live setting — it was the ACC. This was by far the biggest show QOTSA have headlined here, and the desert rockers came surprisingly close to filling it — surprising when you consider their previous high watermarks were the Sony Centre and Sound Academy. They brought enough lighting and video to make the show feel big enough, that is certain. The star of the night, though, was Queens’ sixth LP, …Like Clockwork. It might have taken a long time for QOTSA to record and tour new material, but the band isn’t holding it back now that it’s out there.

Backstreet Boys

“Are you ready to party like its 1999?” To say that the answer to Backstreet Boy member Kevin Richardson’s question was met with a yes during last night’s Toronto show at the Molson Ampitheatre would be a total understatement. The band’s current tour, In A World Like This (named after album No. 8), is a comeback of sorts: it’s the first tour and album with Richardson since 2006, when he left the band. It also marks the band’s 20th anniversary. Although you could feel the excitement and the ’90s nostalgia in the air, the crowd enjoyed the openers. DJ Pauly D of Jersey Shore fame may have a ridiculous (or ridiculously awesome) haircut, but he turned the Ampitheatre into a dance party. And Jesse McCartney brought Justin Timberlake-esque swagger in a bright blue suit jacket and sunglasses, though after a few songs he felt the need to say, “I’m Jesse McCartney, by the way.” Once 9 p.m. rolled around and a video screen lit up with each of the Backstreet Boys’ faces, the crowd went wild. The boys walked down the split-level stage and launched into their first number, 2001′s The Call – in their white suits, black shoes and black shirts, the boys looked as stylish as their songs, dancing in perfect sync for Don’t Want You Back and spacing out on the stage for the slower jam Incomplete.

Bloody Valentine

I’ll give My Bloody Valentine this much: their second Toronto appearance since reuniting in 2008 was a lot less harrowing than the first. That show, at the same venue — the Kool Haus — was notable for one terrible reason: a series of unending, eye-piercing strobe lights that made it borderline impossible to look at the stage. Tuesday night’s show had one on going strobe light that was very distracting for fans trying to see the band play live. Other than that one strobe light, the stage effects throughout the bands performance was a success. The music I’m not so sure of. In the latter half of the set when a clearly annoyed Kevin Shields managed to solve guitar issues that caused the band to abandon Thorn after three tries. The guitars were loud; the vocals were firmly buried/inessential; Shields and company didn’t move much; the melodies were lovely. It was all perfectly OK, but hardly essential. My advice: skip the show, enjoy the records. I get the impression Shields were prefer it that way.

Islands

Alex Turner is finally a frontman. Arctic Monkeys’ lead singer, principal lyricist, and true songwriting wunderkind, who emerged fully formed at the tender age of 19, has spent nearly a decade turning out evocative odes to after-hours bacchanalia seemingly in his sleep. Yet as a stage performer, Turner’s body never quite seemed as comfortably loose as his tongue. But just recently Turner has displayed a sudden distaste for playing guitar in concert, and when he ditched the axe for two songs at Sunday night’s sold out engagement at the Kool Haus in Toronto, the first night of their North American tour in support of the just-released and extremely well-received AM, it became clear that Arctic Monkeys have reached a new stage in their ongoing (if not quite complete) evolution into the best band in the world. As the band tore through sexy new song Arabella and deep cut Pretty Visitors, Turner stalked the stage. With hips swinging, mic in hand, and his hair slicked upwards into a Beatles-in-Hamburg-style quiff, his liberation from the centre stage spot to which he’s been chained since the band began suggests Turner has truly begun to enjoy himself up there.