The Strokes - Birmingham Academy - 24/2/02
5/5
By: Toby L
Set-List: 'Meet Me In The Bathroom', 'The Modern Age', 'Someday', 'Ze Newie', 'New York City Cops', 'Soma', 'Hard To Explain', 'Is This It', 'When It Started', 'Barely Legal', 'Alone, Together', 'Trying Your Luck', 'Last Nite', 'Take It Or Leave It'.
The first time rockfeedback managed to see The Strokes was last year at Oxford's Zodiac. The 500-capacity venue was sold out, and was part of the New York group's debut headline tour.
As we edged our way around the room that night, shoulders were knocked with the likes of some of the UK's most legendary photographers, journalists and DJ's, not to mention a couple of other characters you may have heard of - Kate Moss, Manic Street Preachers and Radiohead to name but three. And - because of this kind of atmosphere - the band's earliest shows, although universally seen as 'classic' looking back on them, were shrouded in a pressure to live up to the ferocious climate of excitement that their name had provoked. There was more to prove than there was the chance to enjoy, basically.
But, fast forward past the best part of twelve months, and we're here this evening in the Birmingham Academy. This time, the capacity is beyond 2,000, there's not one poser in sight, and the anticipation is electric. Like last time, the show has been sold out for ages, the demand to watch the band exceeding space-allocation in the steaming hot room. Yet, with the plays of Michael Jackson's 'Smooth Criminal' and Cyndi Lauper's 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun', the moment has arrived: the biggest band in the world at the moment, in the same room, performing those songs that have been glued to all of our stereos for the last six months.
They stride on confidently, take their places proudly and still pull it off without even suggesting the slightest inference of ego. Rather than launch into a hit, they explode straight into new song, 'Meet Me In The Bathroom', and the response is ecstatic, similar to the sensation experienced when you've just got away with something you know you shouldn't have done. By the time they reach second tune, 'The Modern Age', the crowd are jumping in perfect unison, whilst those remaining standing still merely watch in awe.
And this is what's the most warming thing tonight - the adoration and respect that the crowd feel for the five men in front. Every time a song begins, a loud burst of caged energy is unleashed and the lack of onstage movement by the guys themselves is more than made up for by the efforts from the Sunday nite crowd to enjoy the occasion.
Particularly, the most impacting moments musically are when The Strokes play the material lesser-known than hits such as 'Hard To Explain' and the simply awesome 'New York City Cops' that are also played, with the key examples being yet another new tune - 'Ze Newie', until it's granted its official title - as well as 'When It Started', a UK b-side and US album-track. They best chart the group's progression and most current direction, revealing how the melodic side of their work is now being intertwined with a sparkling, fresh edge that allows the overall product to be more unexpected and thrilling than before.
Also of merit is the material that people just underestimate for live-outings. The building up urgency of 'Soma' sounds completely vital, as does the manic solo of 'Alone, Together', whose delivery from Nick Valensi on guitar is so accomplished and tame, yet so raucous and punk that everyone's left feeling content. However, following a relatively minimal, though entirely effective, lack of lighting on the group's forms, leaving the audience with pure music and shadows of the people producing it, it's with 'Barely Legal' where the house-lights are turned to the max as other guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. leaps off from the drum-platform prior to an epic chorus that prompts attention to turn towards a spinning mirror-ball centre-stage. Basic, maybe, but the proof on show is that, clearly, less is more.
Obviously, the band believe this too, restricting their performance to a highly energised yet meaty fifty-minute set, which culminates in penultimate track, the irrepressible and their signature tune, 'Last Nite', and the ever-edgy dark-rock of 'Take It Or Leave It'. For the former, frontman Mr Julian Casablancas, who had been surprisingly talkative throughout, takes it upon himself to introduce it as 'some shitty song some people play', prior to growling around the stage and mimicking the moves he makes in the video for the song, bumping into band-members, though skilfully avoiding Nikolai Fraiture on bass, who plays with his now-recognised concentrated and coolly unanimated motions. For some, though, as the show reaches a cracking climax, it's not enough, and, after drummer Fabby passes some beer to lucky recipients within the crowd, he stage-dives, drifting off into the abyss of fans that they've attracted tonight. In short, they had triumphed once again.
Though it's just not about triumphing anymore. The Strokes have gone past the days of trying to seal their reputation as a group that's really worthy of the hysteria their rock 'n' roll has generated. The fact is that anyone in possession of the band's huge-selling debut, 'Is This It', and who has seen them at similar concerts to this will know the score and be aware of where it's at.
Right now, The Strokes are merely getting on with what they wanted originally - to give them and their fans an astounding time. If tonight is accountable as evidence for whether their charm and hard work has paid off, then they've succeeded in obtaining this goal.
Artists in this article: The Strokes
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