Hey Hey They're the Arctic Monkeys

When Seattlest arrived at the Crocodile Wednesday night, there were a bunch of people standing outside the venue, desperate for a miracle. A member of our party asked one of the hopeful how much he was willing to spend to get into the show. "I'd pay up to $30," Joe Clueless replied. Laughing, our friend informed this dumb dude that the ticket he had to sell had been purchased off of Craig's List for way more than that. So he quickly sold said ticket to a lucky lady for $60, which he then used to buy the rest of us a round of drinks. God bless generous friends, excessive hype, supply and demand, and the Arctic Monkeys.

To get psyched for the show, we had listened to NPR's broadcast of the band's set in Washington D.C. Monday night. Their show at the Croc was to be the Sheffield four-piece's last American gig before heading off to Japan and Europe (again), and the Seattle setlist hewed pretty closely to what they had played in our nation's capital. We were expecting a little under an hour (no encores) of tight dance rock with well-written lyrics, primarily dealing with being young and British. And that's exactly what they delivered, even kicking things off with the first two tracks from the fast-selling Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. Live, Alex Turner's vocals are even more accent-heavy than on the album, and the band's brash swagger was in full effect. They didn't interact much with the crowd, instead focusing on the task at hand: bringing the rock.

As to the crowd, considering how much energy the band was putting out onstage, we thought the fans would be a little more lively. At the very least, we were hoping for some dancing---we had heard of one show in particular where some serious movement occurred. Look, when the band's playing dance rock, do what the beats are urging you to do and shake dat ass! Sadly, we had to settle for a few people (the kids) really into the music and dancing, while the rest just nodded their heads a bit and occasionally sang along. Sigh. Seattle, we expect more from you.

Photo care of www.flickr.com / user: vant.