 Miggelz
Joined: 10/13/2004
Posts: 13
Location: US | Re: Saw The Strokes in ConcertYes, I saw The Strokes last Sunday, the 17th, at Cornell University. It was an amazing show. I honestly didn't expect their songs to translate to a live performance so well. It just reinforces everything I've felt about the Strokes over the last few years. I think they're (and I think I've told a couple of you this before) the most important development in rock music since the Ramones.
My girlfriend and I had to buy tickets, since the tickets my brother was supposed to reserve for us never went through, because the transaction supposedly never took place. Anyway, we bought our tickets, and arrived later to wait for admission, about an hour before the doors opened. We got there just before the line started to build up. When they did open up we ran right in and got a spot directly in front of the stage, somewhat to the right. We had a great fucking view.
After about twenty minutes I turned around to notice that this enormous fucking hall was almost full. It was easily the biggest concert I had ever been to.
Okay, so the first band came on, and were pretty lame. They were called "Calm to Chaos" and were the most generic, garden variety, angsty nu-metal amalgam of Staind, and some other shitty band. I couldn't pay attention to them, or else I'd get irritated. They played fine, and everything was precise, but if I listened to it at all I'd catch lyrics like "the pain inside" or "fire" or something or "you hypocrite!" I sort of felt bad for them. I turned to my girlfriend during the show, when they were all screaming and acting tough and was like "I bet they're really nice guys."
The funny part about their set was the guitarist. He's sort a goofy happy-go-lucky guy who didn't seem to fit the band that well. Anyway, at one point during their set this photographer started taking his picture, so he started posing, and pointing at the photographer. It was really funny. I wish I had my camera out to get a shot of it, the guitarist, sort of abandoning the band and pointing at this photographer, who's actually encouraging it by taking his picture. It was just a funny image to have stuck in your head.
Anyway, they got off the stage without too much heckling. They probably didn't even notice it.
The Strokes set was fucking great. They all moseyed onto the stage, the lead singer looking like a cross between Richard Hell, Lou Reed, and Steve Buscemi. He just hunched around dancing and scatting (bapabapa stuff) with his leather jacket and shit. I felt like I was in CBGB's in the late 70's. I got a direct authentic punk rock to post punk vibe to what they were doing.
Albert, the crazy haired guitarist, was a fucking mean ass musician. He was so fucking geeky that I think he was the coolest human being I've ever seen. He had his guitar strapped right up to his chest, and his frow swayed around while he played these painfully demanding and complicated melodies. Now I'm always first to shout out for simplicity, and I fucking hate stage masturbation, and I can tell you this was neither masturbatory, nor out of place. It was simply what the music called for. Anyway, Albert was a trip to watch.
The bassist was kind of funny, as well, but in a completely different way. If you look at the insert to their first CD, and find the bassist, that's exactly as much from him as you'll get during the stage performance. He was so adolescent and shy, you kinda get the feeling that you already know him. He didn't seem to have any place in the band, because of his reserved demeanour, but I guess that's why he is the bassist. Not that I'm saying he shouldn't be in the band or anything. He should. He's amusing.
During the show I noticed that the music sounded much more punk rock than their studio recordings did. I suppose that can be said of all bands, but I find it amazing how much rawness and power was translated. I mean, you take the second song on their third album (First Impressions of Earth), the one with the almost comical bassline "DUNG DUNG DUN DUN DUNG DUNG" and you don't really take much notice to it. During the show it was like the nastiest, most intense thing I could imagine. I don't know if their recordings are simply too clean, or what, but the live sound just kicks the shit out of their studio recordings. And, again, I can relate that to the Ramones. Their studio sound never could capture the ferocity of them actually playing.
Anyway, they played every song I wanted them to, including "New York City Cops", one of my favorites. When they whipped out an organ up on stage I knew they were going to play "Ask Me Anything", which was a great thing to watch, just the singer and the other guitarist on the organ. When he announced he was going to play "Is This It?" I whipped out the album and held it up. He pointed at me and was like "Yeah, that's it.", which made me pretty happy. But the biggest treat of the night was a cover of fucking Lou Reed's "Take a Walk on the Wild Side". I can express neither the suprise nor the emense happiness I felt when they announced and performed this. I couldn't help but feel that I was the only person in the entire venue that understood what the hell they were doing, and where their music was coming from.
It was a great night. My girlfriend and I stuck around after the show, outside by their tour busses, but apparently they had already left. The guitarist from the first band actually took my records in to see if the band was still there to autograph them. Just as I predicted, they were really nice guys.
NOW WHEN THE FUCK ARE THE HIVES GOING TO COME AROUND?!
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