The Strokes in Glasgow

Originally uploaded by dazedconfused.

So why did the Strokes gig on the 8th of February in Glasgow Carling rock my socks off? Electric is the word. The only analogy I could use to describe my experience that night is to compare it to being subjected to electro-convulsive treatment. The moment the band came on stage was sufficient to give me the goosebumps already, to be given a chance to see the band perform live. The realisation that prior to this, watching them was just an intention I’d never expect to fulfil, and then seeing them in the flesh, that sent another shock through me.

They opened with a song unfamiliar to me, probably a B-side or something taken off their latest album which I haven’t yet had the luxury to purchase. It might not be the best choice of an opener, considering the song wasn’t familiar to the crowd, and neither did it possess the catchiness to get the crowd going. Nevertheless, I was still stunned for a couple minutes by their presence, so it didn’t really matter to me what they were playing.

But the second song definitely brought the house down. They played their fantastic first single of their latest album, a song called “Juicebox”. The wicked opening bassline riffs, and the verse only served to tease the crowd and heightened their anticipation to mosh violently to Julian’s wailings of “Why won’t you come over here, We’ve got a city to love”.

The rest of the gig saw more of the crowd (me included) jigging to the upbeat rhythms of favourites like ‘The Modern Age’, ‘Soma’, ‘Barely Legal’ i.e the whole tracklisting of their first album “Is this it?”. It was only after realizing that the band played 10 out of 11 songs from the first album, that I discover how strong “Is this it?” was as an album compared to their sophomore effort “Room on fire” from which only a select few tracks were played in the gig. But it has to be mentioned that the song that killed the crowd most besides ‘Juicebox’ was the song ‘Reptilia’ taken from their second album. The deafening screams of the audience matched the band’s powerful rendition of this song.

While the band maintained their cool composure by being living statues throughout their performance, they let their music do the talking. Setting the pace for the night were the unrelenting rhythms from drummer Fabrizio Moretti and thumping basslines from Nikolai. The guitarists meanwhile, “Jew-fro”-ed Albert Hammond, Jr and Nick took turns playing the lead and rhythm parts. Albert Hammond struck me more as the guitarist responsible for the driving rhythms and electric sounds in songs like ‘Last Night’, ‘Reptilia’ and ‘The Modern Age’ while Nick Valensi’s forte was in noodling about during the solos. Combined, they were great. Last but not least, there’s Julian Casablancas who delivered his duty which was look cool and sing like he’s drunk (which he probably was anyway).

The audience is part of the reason why it was such a great night. Even Julian himself said towards the end of the gig,”We love you Glasgow, we’ve never played to such a loud crowd before.” That’s what Glaswegians are, loud but receptive.

Of course there were not-so-good moments as well, like instances where the guitars were out of key from the bass, and a few rather bland performances of expectedly upbeat numbers. But what a night it was.