Arctic Monkeys at Riviera Theatre: photos

I know what you're thinking: Who's that rockabilly band?

Arctic Monkeys have been slowly turning American over its last few albums. The Sheffield band rides choppers around L.A. and grills hunted meat in the desert with Josh Homme. As their hair has has grown slicker and their denim tighter, the Brits have beefed up their sound. The recently released fifth album,AM, is a mammoth, where the group's ambitions of muscling up to an arena act have been properly realized through gloriously dumb Queen beats and glam stomps. Alex Turner is singing about sex in more direct terms. It's a blast.

The Monkeys hit the Riv in Chicago a week after the record's release. We were there to shoot the pictures.