How The Strokes Loved The Audience And The Audience Loved Them Back: A Tale Of One City.
New York take this. You might be the capital of the world, but we are the real macs. We are the city of champions, and we rock. Just ask your city's poster boys, The Strokes. They have us to thank for their final transition into a hard-hitting garage rock revivalists, for finally tintinnabulating that rhythm section, and for imbuing our collective minds with pure, unadulterated musical orgasm. Because this audience came with a mission, to sing, dance and create cacophony, because they did as they wished, The Strokes rocked. And The Strokes will return here, because we Edmontonians know how to love a band and mean it. Julian wept for the love. Fabrizio leaped on his drums and doused his head with beer. And this is me at my least hyperbol-ic.
One of the most powerful and most inspired of the live performances I have seen in years, the NYC boys came, saw, and God forgive me for this lousy quote, conquered. From the first notes of "You Only Live Once", accompanied by ferocious instrumentation, Julian's throaty yowls, and the best lighting effects ever, you could tell how it was going to come down. Never before had a band been so aware of its strenghts, as they abandoned emphasis on their latest release, First Impressions of Earth, instead opting to take us through their powerful back catalogue with songs like "The End Has No End", "Someday", Is This It?" "Soma" and the highly effusive "Take It Or Leave It". The mix of old and new worked very well for this crowd as we welcomed the band to the city for the first time. But this was no ordinary recall, as the band fleshed out the sound of each song, turning them from melodious relics to into full blast volatile punk rock numbers, all rising and crescendoing with the amazing lighting effects. It was powerful. Super Fantastique.
One final note. I don't know who opened for The Strokes. And frankly I don't care. This seven-piece came on, all Broken Social Scene-like, four guitars, keyboards, drums, trumpets. The first song was mildly interesting. The last was entertaining. The rest was forgettable. Call yourselves "The First and Lasts". And please hand over lead vocal duties to the lady in the band. Yes, the one who said "fuck" at an all ages show. She sings much better than Miles David (misspelling intended).
One of the most powerful and most inspired of the live performances I have seen in years, the NYC boys came, saw, and God forgive me for this lousy quote, conquered. From the first notes of "You Only Live Once", accompanied by ferocious instrumentation, Julian's throaty yowls, and the best lighting effects ever, you could tell how it was going to come down. Never before had a band been so aware of its strenghts, as they abandoned emphasis on their latest release, First Impressions of Earth, instead opting to take us through their powerful back catalogue with songs like "The End Has No End", "Someday", Is This It?" "Soma" and the highly effusive "Take It Or Leave It". The mix of old and new worked very well for this crowd as we welcomed the band to the city for the first time. But this was no ordinary recall, as the band fleshed out the sound of each song, turning them from melodious relics to into full blast volatile punk rock numbers, all rising and crescendoing with the amazing lighting effects. It was powerful. Super Fantastique.
One final note. I don't know who opened for The Strokes. And frankly I don't care. This seven-piece came on, all Broken Social Scene-like, four guitars, keyboards, drums, trumpets. The first song was mildly interesting. The last was entertaining. The rest was forgettable. Call yourselves "The First and Lasts". And please hand over lead vocal duties to the lady in the band. Yes, the one who said "fuck" at an all ages show. She sings much better than Miles David (misspelling intended).
posted by Esquirrel, yo! at 16.5.06
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home