The Strokes - London Heaven - 28/6/01
5/5
By: Toby L
Set-List: 'Is This It', 'The Modern Age', 'Soma', 'Barely Legal', 'Someday', 'Alone Together', 'Last Nite', 'Hard To Explain', 'NYC Cops', 'Trying Your Luck', 'Take It Or Leave It'.
With so much expectation surrounding the band, The Strokes need to impress tonight's crowd. However - at first thought - it looks like the odds are against them. For starters, their drummer - Fabrizio - had a nasty fall last week and broke his hand, prompting the band to cancel several shows on their UK tour, flying in a friend from New York to replace him. With only several days to rehearse a full live set, Matt Romano was under a lot of pressure to come up with the goods. As if that wasn't enough, by the time The Strokes get up onstage tonight to play their biggest headline show thus far, members of the group get pelted with beer-cups and other various missiles... Oh - and by the way - a barrage of A-list celebs are on the guest-list anticipating a classic performance... But that's rock 'n' roll, eh?
Luckily, it would be foolish of us to think that these challenging factors would be strong enough to deter The Strokes from triumphing this evening - for that's what they do. Turning up at 11pm on the dot, once the five members are in sight, the audience feels proud to have got their tickets - whether bought prior to the allocations selling out, or even if purchased from touts outside tonight - who were selling every piece of paper that guaranteed entry for £150. The set is essentially their new album, due out in the Autumn, entitled 'Is This It', and this show-case concert certainly does the material justice.
The audience is won over almost immediately with the placement of debut release, 'The Modern Age', early in the performance, enabling a frantic pogo-pit. When the crowd gets energetic and exciting - so do the band. Frontman Julian relishes the attention of being centre-stage, adding fits and bursts of enthusiasm in every grunt of a lyric, prior to Nick Valensi on guitar stepping forward and ripping out riffage and solos to die for. It's only topped with every following track: from the sumptuous chorus in 'Barely Legal' to the mighty singalong and dance-inducing 'Last Nite' and new single 'Hard To Explain', whose upcoming b-side 'NYC Cops' throws in a dashing of a scuzzed-up 'Lust For Life', only with more ferocity.
Why they're likened to late-70s punks, such as the guitar-wrangling genius of Television, is due to a lot of the song-structures: they don't just do, 'verse-bridge-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus-middle8-solo-bridge-chorus-end'; instead, they throw in at least three distinctive choruses into every track and top it off with a smattering of layered guitar and precision drumming. The finale of 'Take It Or Leave It' sees this proven best and allows the band to walk off with a bounce in their steps and smiles on their faces, unable to resist pride at the warm and ecstatic reception of the audience.
Perhaps one of the most touching aspects of the show is when injured drummer Fabby runs onstage to hug every member, showing his appreciation for their stunning effort to date. It's this spirit and heart which makes The Strokes' music so special: it's there for you to listen to with your friends, when you're alone or when you just want a good time. They're inspiring to us all - and indeed to any other up and coming acts that want to be regarded as talented and set for the stars as them.
Artists in this article: The Strokes
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