The Strokes highlight classic 2000s tracks at sold-out Philly show
A dazzling and dizzying visual show, a bevy of 2000s hits, and supporting act Thundercat’s guest appearance were among highlights from the beloved indie rockers’ sold-out concert at Highmark Mann late last week.
The Strokes | Photo by Danielle Ciampaglia for WXPN
The Strokes are a sort of generational band. Created in the late 90’s and putting out records semi-regularly since, they’ve garnered an all-ages fan base that finds some sort of solace in the indie rockers’ sound. When the New York City-bred five piece came to Philadelphia on Friday for their Reality Awaits tour, they packed The Mann to the brim. The crowd included families enjoying a night out as well as lifelong fans adding this show to the tally live The Strokes performances they’ve attended.
The stage was bathed in a surreal shade of blue when the band came out, with frontman Julian Casablancas wearing one leather glove and a vest. They opened the show with “Is This It,” a first time performance for the tour. The setlist was quite epic, featuring songs from all their albums, but mostly Is This It and First Impressions of Earth.
About halfway through the main set, they played “Ode To The Mets,” an epic, beautiful track off their most recent album The New Abnormal. The song is a slow build album closer that feels so deeply intimate. Listening to it feels like being a fly on the wall in the studio, hearing them have ideas in real time that changes the trajectory of the song. They ended their set with “Reptilia,” a timeless classic of theirs, but not before threatening an encore-less show if the crowd wasn’t loud enough.
In their encore, they brought out bassist extraordinaire Thundercat for “Call It Fate, Call It Karma.” Thundercat and his band, who also opened the show, are undeniably talented musicians who play complicated and impressive music, but they were done a disservice by the sound at this show. From the lawn, the drums sounded behind and blown out. They would be better served at a fully indoor venue where sound fidelity is a little easier to control.
The energy in the GA pit made the show feel intimate despite being at a 13,000 person-capacity venue. You’d have been hard pressed to find someone at this show who wasn’t dancing, but there was something special about this small group of people squeezed into this even smaller space. Based on the age of the crowd, lots of those people have likely grown alongside the band.
The stage set up, lights, and screen projections were highly stylized. The gig was as much a light show as it was a concert. Between the strobes and the lasers, looking right at the stage was difficulty at times. The lighting was undoubtedly beautiful and engaging for the crowd in the lawn, but a bit headache-inducing closer to the stage. The screen projections for the lawn were mesmerizing, too, reading almost like old iPod commercials with the band silhouetted against neon backdrops. Growing up with a band like The Strokes is surreal, as their image has evolved without alienating their core audience.
This lasting power is due in part to their timeless sound that hasn’t changed much over their nearly three decades of music making. Their seventh studio album, Reality Awaits, comes out July 24.