The Strokes
I'm reviving this concert review blog for this review!
The Strokes
Rogers Arena
Vancouver,BC
March 5th 2020
After a 14 years break up, The Strokes are going back at it and touring...for the good reasons?
I was looking forward to this concert and prepped by listening to a few songs.
As a premise to this review, I want to say that I followed and enjoyed the "solo" careers of these band members since their breakup.
Alvvays
The group Alvvays was the 2nd band opening the show (i missed the 1st opening band for lack of interest).
I usually like this band and I think they offered a good performance and played a good mix of their songs and genres.
The sound quality was great for this performance and I couldn't really complain about anything.
The Strokes
Then came on The Strokes...
Sound-
For lack of a better term, the technical team did a terrible job at the sound level!
The sound was mediocre at best...the sound of the instruments was so loud that we couldnt distinguish between any of them, the drums were inaudible and the microphone( and singer) was louder than all of them combine so it was impossible for me to appreciate the music.
So to describe the sound better I would say that everything was loud, sounded muffled and the levels were set really badly.
All the subtleties of their music was lost in the general noise.
Art Direction
Or I should say lack of production values to their overall set production...
Their light show was minimal.
No background iconography, no video, no set at all around them.
Performance
It was just them I guess...emphasis on a band is a good thing usually if you can offer a good performance, interaction with the crowd is a pre-requisite with such a low set dressing around them, but...that too was absent.
It was probably the least impressive show I've seen since Liam Gallagher's band...at least Liam as some ego issues he is displaying and the crowd can hate him for it and enjoy it at most.
So Julian Casablancas made no efforts to create a connection with the crowd, didnt communicate during the show or even before the encore.
Felt like he had no interpersonal skills at all, static throughout the show and looking down to his feet and not caring one bit about his performance.
As I said before, the mic was too loud and muffled so we could hear him sing, but not to great effect.
The musicians also gave a lackluster performance where they played "well" their songs, but in automatic mode and mostly kept STATIC on stage.
They went away for their encore without saying a word...for a group that is supposedly political and pushing for Bernie Sanders they kept really quiet last night.
So they left, everybody around me was wondering what was going on, if it was the end of the show, or they would come back...but for the first time in a while NO ONE was clapping or screaming for the group to come back for a couple of extra songs... but they came back anyways and did a few more songs. "Last Nite" was played last and the sound was better than most of the performance.
Merch
The merch was also quite expensive with shirts at 55$ and long sleeves at 110$...you can wonder if they are only together to bring more money to their bank accounts.
Set List
Bad Decisions
The End Has No End
Someday
Ize of the World
Barely Legal
You only Live Once
The Adults are Talking
Take It or Leave It
12:51
Automatic Stop
Hard to Explain
What Ever Happened?
Reptilia
Encore:
Soma
Juicebox
Last Nite
