The Strokes

[*Perrine*]

Thank you!

 

 

^Have fun! And don't get crushed :P

Haha yeah, I'm planning to get front row so I have at least the barrier to hold on to!

I'm still going to die D:

[mathieu_c]

I have never witnessed a bigger crush at the front than during a Strokes gig. Then again, that was during their heyday, so things may be a bit calmer now. :)

Probably not much though. :P

[*Perrine*]

Mmh not sure of that!

 

I'd rather be crushed against the barrier than being in the middle of a moshpit though :uhoh:

[mathieu_c]

Yeah, front row is much more comfortable than the middle of the pit. At least you have something to hold on to and it's easier to retain your spot.

[Keddie]

Thank you!

 

 

 

Haha yeah, I'm planning to get front row so I have at least the barrier to hold on to!

I'm still going to die D:

You're welcome. I hope you do get the barrier! I was at the barrier when I saw them, and as long as you're there, you'll be pretty much fine, although you'll feel quite crushed by the time it's over :P

I have never witnessed a bigger crush at the front than during a Strokes gig. Then again, that was during their heyday, so things may be a bit calmer now. :)

Probably not much though. :P

Haha, I don't think they're any calmer than before. If anything, they're more crazy now!

[*Perrine*]

You're welcome. I hope you do get the barrier! I was at the barrier when I saw them, and as long as you're there, you'll be pretty much fine, although you'll feel quite crushed by the time it's over :P

 

I'll go there early enough!

Now getting ready for all kinds of bruises :wacko:

[Lauriane]

I'm sorry you were disappointed... Especially after a long wait in this terrible weather. How long did they play ?

 

During their Italian show power went out 4 times :confused:

[Lauriane]

No I wasn't. I just read about it and about how Jules and Fab went into the crowd to "satisfy" them when power went out... True it totally sucks, both for the audience and the band.

[*Perrine*]

Ooh I'm sorry you were disappointed Jo :\

Hope you still enjoyed the show despite all the problems...

 

Aaand I'm leaving for Paris, the Strokes tomorrow :awesome:

[mathieu_c]

Just booked a hotel for the Paris show next week. Only one small problem left. I don't have tickets, and it's sold out... .

I made it in!

 

Looking back on it, we took some crazy risks to get that ticket and it could have ended pretty badly. Full gig report coming up when I'm fully recovered from the past couple of days.:P

 

Don't have any pics since it was a madhouse where I was standing. :P

[loudefix]

Good but not exceptional on Thursday at the Paleo Festival in Switzerland. They did their work. Very dispensable interventions from Julian who was obviously not sober. The guys are robots, no emotions, except Albert who seems more human than the others.

Juicebox / Last Nite / Hard To Explain at the end was good anyway! Oh and Reptila :heart:

 

I filmed a song

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jJ97hPjJVE]‪The Strokes - The Modern Age @ Paléo Festival 2011‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]

 

and a short part of Reptila :

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRveX0RtKAg]‪The Strokes / Julian Casablancas @ Paléo Festival 2011‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]

 

But you can watch the full concert here :

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xk25yo_the-strokes-paleo-festival-nyon-2011-concert-complet_music&start=26

[Corkus]

They were stiff when I saw them too, but from my understanding, Julian has always been pretty lifeless on stage, usually settling for sarcastic banter to engage the crowd (which you need the right audience for). I think some of his stage banter is pretty witty, but they don't evoke much energy for a still-young band that has plenty of danceable hits.

[ApproximatelyInfinite]

Jo and I differ on what we thought of the Oxegen performance, I think...there were a few sound mixing problems, but I've definitely heard worse, and I think they sounded pretty good, if not outstanding compared to other times I've seen them. The crowd was fucking ridiculous, though, as expected--but I can't say whether or not I thought it was worse than Coachella, because that had a lot of other shit going down too that just didn't happen at Oxegen, like people bloodied and kicked in the head.

 

As for them onstage--yeah, they can be somewhat wooden, especially Nick and Nikolai. But if you watch Nikolai, like if you're right in front of him at the barrier, you'll see just how much he really does enjoy himself. He does little sneak interactions with the people up front that the cameras never seem to catch. Fab is hard to see sometimes and Nick is just kind of stoic, but Albert is great to watch. I think Julian (who IS very much sober) lost a lot of his stage presence when he gave up drinking, and his nerves and own insecurities keep him from being as much of a crazy frontman as he used to be (he used to be a madman when he was hopped up on various things). But I don't really go to a Strokes show, or any show, to see antics or have the members look at me and interact with me, so I don't really mind. I just enjoy seeing a band I love with all my heart live, and I'm not someone who thinks they're up there for the money or because they feel they have to be, I just think they have their own way of doing and dealing with what they do :shrug:.

[Keddie]

Jo and I differ on what we thought of the Oxegen performance, I think...there were a few sound mixing problems, but I've definitely heard worse, and I think they sounded pretty good, if not outstanding compared to other times I've seen them. The crowd was fucking ridiculous, though, as expected--but I can't say whether or not I thought it was worse than Coachella, because that had a lot of other shit going down too that just didn't happen at Oxegen, like people bloodied and kicked in the head.

 

As for them onstage--yeah, they can be somewhat wooden, especially Nick and Nikolai. But if you watch Nikolai, like if you're right in front of him at the barrier, you'll see just how much he really does enjoy himself. He does little sneak interactions with the people up front that the cameras never seem to catch. Fab is hard to see sometimes and Nick is just kind of stoic, but Albert is great to watch. I think Julian (who IS very much sober) lost a lot of his stage presence when he gave up drinking, and his nerves and own insecurities keep him from being as much of a crazy frontman as he used to be (he used to be a madman when he was hopped up on various things). But I don't really go to a Strokes show, or any show, to see antics or have the members look at me and interact with me, so I don't really mind. I just enjoy seeing a band I love with all my heart live, and I'm not someone who thinks they're up there for the money or because they feel they have to be, I just think they have their own way of doing and dealing with what they do :shrug:.

I 100% agree with you. Wow. Thank you for sparing me the time I was going to use to make a rambling post about this myself :P

 

They're up there because they want to be, and they like to be, whether people realize it or not. If I want a crazy show, I'll go see of Montreal or some band like that. But the amount of flair put into a show to me doesn't say a thing about how much a band enjoys performing. It's always been clear to me that The Strokes love what they do, even if they don't express that through lots of smiling and dancing (minus Albert hehe).

[ApproximatelyInfinite]

I just love seeing a band really get into it and when you can see that they love being up there and aren't doing it like a routine or..this might sound stupid but like a job though I know it is their job but it's supposed to be fun for them too, you know? if it stops being fun then it's not really right anymore.. (examples of seeing bands enjoy themselves would be CP at Oxegen and The National every time I've seen them, especially Tilburg) I just get a kick out of that, not that it can't be a fun gig even if the band don't seem to enjoy themselves ( like i DID have fun at The Strokes even though I thought they were kinda..boring) but it's a completely different thing if the band actually looks like they wanna be there and are happy to be there and are having loads of fun, you know?

 

Nah, I know what you mean--I mean, I'd love it if they were a bit more animated or whatever, but at the same time, I don't think that just because they're not dancing all over the place doesn't mean they're not having a good time, either. In their earlier days, I think their antics were mostly fueled by alcohol and drugs, and I think now their tact is mostly "focus on the playing first," which I like a lot :D. Despite sound issues and occasional fuck-ups, I think they're a great live band and great musical performers when they (namely Julian) don't let the nerves get to them.

 

(and I know you had fun at The Strokes :D. It's just a shame that you repeated my Coachella experience exactly, because after that I felt pretty much the same way as you until I got to see them again and again).

[Keddie]

I've never been to a festival, but I get the idea that they're nowhere near as good as a regular concert. My show at MSG didn't have any sound problems, to say the least. It's a lot easier to get the sound exactly right when it's an indoor venue and it's just the one band.

[ApproximatelyInfinite]

I've never been to a festival, but I get the idea that they're nowhere near as good as a regular concert. My show at MSG didn't have any sound problems, to say the least. It's a lot easier to get the sound exactly right when it's an indoor venue and it's just the one band.

 

I strongly believe in the crowd influencing a band's performance, and at actual concerts as opposed to festivals, most of the people there, especially in the very front, are big fans of that band and sing along and go crazy for the actual music, which I think can help feed the musicians' performances. At festivals, you have more of a mixed bag of a crowd, usually, and while festival crowd responses can be great, I feel maybe it's slightly different from the type of crowd that goes to a one-off concert and relates to the people onstage in a different way. Also, yeah, sound I think is better for concerts, since they're usually indoors or in amphitheaters and there are only two bands to set up for and soundcheck on that stage as opposed to 10+.

[mathieu_c]

I've never been to a festival, but I get the idea that they're nowhere near as good as a regular concert. My show at MSG didn't have any sound problems, to say the least. It's a lot easier to get the sound exactly right when it's an indoor venue and it's just the one band.

Hmmm, that's not entirely true. At an outdoor festival, it's a lot easier to get the sound right than at any indoor venue, no matter how many bands are playing. Of course, if there is absolutely no time for a soundcheck, then it can be pretty bad too. But you don't have to account as much for echo's, lay-out of the venue, acoustics, etc.

 

By the way, the sound was horrible at the Paris (indoor) gig. About as bad as it can be I thought.

 

Overall, I obviously prefer indoor gigs over festivals, but some of the best gigs I've seen have been festival gigs.

[mathieu_c]

So... the Strokes in Paris.

 

We left home (i.e. somewhere in Belgium) around noon. Due to a combination of roadworks, traffic jams, horrible weather, floods, a crazy hitchhiker and a crappy gps system, we only arrived in Paris at about 6 pm. When we arrived at the venue we saw that they were just about to open the gates. Unfortunately, we didn't have any tickets yet, so we started our mad search for tickets.

 

We made a sign 'need 2 tickets' and we were immediately surrounded by ticket touts. They asked 300 euro for 2 tickets. Which we obviously weren't planning on paying. We decided to head for the subway station since we figured that's were most of the people needed to pass.

 

BAD IDEA. As we made our way from the venue to the metro station we were followed by a ticket tout. And then a second one. Followed by a third one. By the time we arrived at the entrance of the metro station, there were about 50 touts who had their eyes on us. Including people on scooters and motorbikes. We tried to approach a girl who held an extra ticket, but as soon as she got the ticket out, she was surrounded by the touts who brutally took away her ticket and then threw her 5 euro or something. They then made it clear that we should stop holding up our sign or else... .

 

We actually had gotten really scared and contemplated on going home again. Before we left home, we had worked out a back-up plan in case we couldn't get any tickets, which consisted of the following:

However, we totally weren't in the mood for gin-tonic after those experiences so that (and the inevitable paracetamol for the day-after) proved to be pretty useless.:P

 

As we walked back to the venue (where it was safer since there was some form of security) a girl came towards us and quickly said she wanted to sell us tickets at face value since she only wanted to sell them to 'real fans'. We gave her the money (very fast, since the touts had seen what was going on and were approaching us) and then made a mad run to the entrance.:dance:

 

Completely out of breath, we found a good spot in the middle of the floor area. :)

 

As was to be expected the start of the gig was pure madness. They opened with New York City Cops, which was an immediate highlight of the gig. In fact, it was such a highlight that they had trouble achieving that kind of power and intensity for the rest of the gig.

 

I think the setlist was basically the same as the festival gigs. Lots of big songs in the first half which had everyone jumping around like crazy. There was a bit of a dip in the set halfway though. The new songs didn't all come across too well I thought. Especially Under Cover Of Darkness was a bit meh. Machu Picchu did rock though!

 

I thought the atmosphere within the band was good (lots of smiles from everyone) but something did seem to happen between Julian and Nikolai when at some point there were a couple of angry looks between the two of them. I had no idea what that was about. They both did seem to forget about it along the way and exchanged a couple of smiles later on.

 

Like I said, there was a bit of a dip halfway but they totally mad up for that with the end of the regular set (with awesome renditions of Juicebox and Last Nite) and the encores. The classic set closer Take It Or Leave It was (along with the opener New York City Cops) the big highlight for me.

 

All in all a great gig! You could say that they basically play the exact same gig they did 10 years ago (leaning heavily on Is This It, Julian stumbling over his own lyrics, a mostly static band), but who cares when you've got songs this good? Like I said in a previous post, a Strokes gig is mostly about the songs and the reaction in the crowd. And Paris delivered on both fronts.

 

I do have to say that the sound was horrible. I moshed my way towards different spots on the floor and it was just as bad everywhere I went. At times, you couldn't even make out what Julian was singing.

 

But French crowds rock! Perrine said that French crowds usually don't know English too well, but this gig proved to be the exception. The crowd was singing louder than Julian at times!:P

 

I wasn't able to take any pictures since I was in the middle of the crowd jumping around way too much. I'm curious for Perrine's pics. Hope she was able to get a good spot!

[ApproximatelyInfinite]

Oh yeah, I completely agree that festivals and concerts are completely different things :D. I guess they really are hard to compare, because they involve such different components like crowd and venue and everything. I have a hard time deciding which I prefer, since I've had three of the best weekends of my life at Coachella and Sweetlife and Oxegen. I guess I think I'd prefer to see my all-time favorite artists, like Coldplay and The Strokes, at their own gigs in concert venues, whereas I love that you can go around and see a ton of bands in one day at festivals and experience so many different things and bands that you normally wouldn't. I guess it ultimately comes down to what a person prefers personally, but part of my favorite thing about "real" concerts is that at the very front, you're a part of this crew of people that know all the words just like you and love the band in the same way that you do, whereas that's less likely to happen at festivals just because there are so many more people there for different reasons. All the same, Oxegen was the best time I've ever seen Coldplay, so who knows what that says about what I like best :P

[Keddie]

Thus the reason I made sure to mention that all my thoughts on the festival vs regular concert were just theories, since I've never been to a festival. :P

[*Perrine*]

Okay, the Strokes were so fucking epic live, I still can’t get over it!

And I’m saying this despite all the negative parts of the show.

 

Came there at 11am with my sister and had quite a fun day queuing and talking to people. Too bad coming early ended up totally useless, as they blocked our queue cause of guys having big backpacks. Oh the joy of seeing people who came there hours after you running to get front row :|

They finally let us in and I ran like crazy to the barrier, so we ended up being front row but on the left.

 

The supporting act was the Cribs, but no Johnny Marr in sight! I didn’t enjoy it that much cause the sound was really awful, you just couldn’t hear the guitars separately and it resulted in a sort of mash coming out of the speakers.

 

So it’s useless to say that as soon as the Strokes came on stage I totally lose myself. They started with NYC cops and everybody went nuts. At that precise moment I was so glad I had a barrier to hold on to, I could feel the guy behind me being thrown in all directions and was like “whatever, keep jumping” haha! The crowd got quieter after a few songs though, still enjoying themselves but no more risk of getting killed :D

The setlist was really good, they played 19 songs and almost half of them were from Is this it, which is good cause this album is fucking perfect :} As Mathieu said, Take it or leave it was epic, everyone was screaming at the top of their lungs! I’ve been surprised by the French audience by the way, lots of people knowing the lyrics actually. Too bad they didn’t play Trying my luck, I would have cried :3

Reptilia was a total blast, I’ve almost never enjoyed myself that much at a gig. Another occasion for Mr Valensi to show off <3 I mean, you can criticize the Strokes for everything but you can’t say they’re not talented after listening to tracks like this one.

From First Impressions of Earth they just played Juicebox and You only live once. God You Only Live Once was so good, one of the highlights of the gig for me. Words cannot explain how much I love this song. Had so much fun with my sister while singing “Tch tch tch tch I can’t see the sunshine”. We’re such dorks haha!

Concerning Angles, I was so glad they played Machu Picchu, which sounds extremely good live! BUT WHAT THE FUCK GUYS, WHY NO TAKEN FOR A FOOL? D: I was so looking forward to screaming “Sisteeer!” haha. Really liked Under Cover of Darkness (Valensi is such a guitar god, was so amazed to see his fingers running on the guitar neck), Life is simple in the moonlight and Gratisfaction. My sister and I have been practicing the “OH B-BABY don’t you look so mad” part all day haha! Not so fond of You’re so right at all though.

 

Now after my impression on the setlist, my impression on the band! Well I was expecting them to just come, play and leave, so I was positively surprised by their attitude on stage :) Couldn’t see Albert at all but he seemed really friendly to the people on the other side and took a pic of the audience. Nikolai looks sweet as well, looking at us all the time while playing and smiling a lot. He even blew us kisses at some point, after Julian said his name several times with the deepest voice ever, haha wtf! Even Nick looked at us at some point, so I really wasn’t disappointed xD

Julian had a great voice compared to some videos I’ve seen from their first shows on this tour. I was glad he sang that well cause I thought he’d lost his so special voice, seems like he didn’t!

The atmosphere in the band didn’t seem bad, they were smiling when Julian said random crap in French. “Je vous aime…tous!” was really really cute though :blush:

 

Now the negative parts. As soon as the lights came back on, my sister looked at her watch cause we felt like it went by so fast… and it did! Damn it they played for less than 1h15, was expecting at least 1h30 considering it was their own show and the price we paid for those tickets :/ That really wasn’t cool of them, everyone was complaining about that after the show, was a shame.

As Mathieu said the sound wasn’t that good at all, you could clearly hear the guitars, but especially at the beginning, you could barely hear Julian, and at some points not at all as everyone was singing around me! It’s not the venue’s fault cause I went to see Gorillaz there and the sound was really good!

 

Anyway, the quality of their music totally made it up for their too short set. Even though I was disappointed by that, it was one of the best gigs I’ve been to and the post-concert depression is hitting hard, I just wish I could see them again ugh!

Speaking of their attitude, I’m not expecting them to dance on stage or run everywhere, they just focus on the music and that’s all that matters to me :nice: I don’t give a fuck about confettis or fireworks haha.

 

So I was such in awe after they left the stage that I couldn’t resist and had to buy a Strokes shirt. It basically cost me an arm and a leg but it’s so beautiful :dazzled: I was wearing it proudly the day after while hanging out in Paris and managed to meet people wearing the same hehe!

I didn’t try to meet them after the show, meeting fans is not really their type am I right? Plus more than 20 people were waiting, was totally useless. I even heard about fans waiting at their hotel, like what the fuck? That’s so disrespectful I think… Julian and Nick were spotted in Paris, but I was too busy queuing anyway :tongue:

 

To end my (short woops) review, I’ll just post a few pics I took (was a bit disappointed cause the lighting wasn’t the best).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that's it! I love them even more now, hope they'll keep existing as a band while still making good music <3

[Keddie]

Sounds like it was awesome; glad you enjoyed yourself! Yeah, they never seem to play for that long. Part of it, I think, is the fact that they have a lot of songs that are on the short side. Maybe if they add in a couple more FIOE songs to future setlists it will be of a better length (wishful thinking :P)

[ApproximatelyInfinite]

JESUS, PERRINE, YOUR PICTURES ARE AMAZING :dead:

 

I'm glad you had a good time! But yeah, like Katie said, they never play much longer than an hour and a half max, which I think is kind of lame. And as for their sound...I really think they need to fire their sound team and get a new one. They've had way too many issues on that front this year alone, and the gig I went to in 2006 sounded pretty bad too. I don't think it's the band, I think it's whoever sets up for them.

 

I can't believe they didn't play Taken For A Fool! It's the new single, what's up with that? :freak:

 

Maybe we can talk more about it on Skype tomorrow! :D

[Keddie]

Oh wow I didn't even realize TFAF wasn't played....that IS strange.....

 

And I agree, I wouldn't blame the actual band for the sound problems, I think their sound team is just rather incompetent. They need to step it up some. I feel lucky that my show had good sound.