Originally scheduled for March 14th, 2020 then pushed to May 29th as the Covid-19 pandemic began and lockdowns were put in place, The Strokes finally got to play the Forum last night (10/27).
This sold-out show also included Always and King Princess. This was just the 5th performance this year by The Strokes. Formed in New York City in 1998, the Strokes went on to have major success these last two decades. Their debut EP The Modern Age was released in 2001 and that led to several labels trying to sign The Strokes, They ultimately ended up signing to RCA Records releasing their first album Is This It. Is This It was the number one album of the year by NME and ranked at number two by Rolling Stone.
They released another two albums two years apart Room on Fire (2003) and First Impressions on Earth (2005) then released Angles six years later. Just two years later came the release of Comedown Machine and after seven years finally released The New Abnormal produced by the legendary Rick Rubin in April 2020. Four singles of this album made it in the Top 20 of the US Rock Chart.
For a band that's been around over 20 years, it’s not too common to still have all original members. Where groups like Panic! At the Disco, The Killers, and Train only have their singer as the sole remaining member in the group, The Strokes have all five founding members. The band consists of frontman Julian Casablancas, Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr. on lead/rhythm guitar, Nikolai Fraiture on bass, and Fabrizio Moretti on drums. The Strokes won Best Rock Album at the 63rd Grammy Awards for The New Abnormal. The Strokes went on around 25 minutes late from their scheduled time of 9:40 P.M. For all the shows I’ve seen at the Forum, the stage production was one of the coolest things I’ve seen.
The first song of the night was “Call It Fate, Call It Karma” from their new album. This was the first time it was played live. “At The Door” was also performed live for the first time. The Strokes also played older hits like “You Only Live Once,” and “Reptilia,” which I remember from Guitar Hero III “Ode to the Mets,” a new song was dedicated to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Casablancas joked about hating the Cleveland Indians himself being a NY Mets fan. “Last Nite” came before the three song encore ending with “New York Cops.”
Setlist:
-
Call It Fate, Call It Karma (Live debut)
-
At The Door (Live debut)
Encore:
-
One Way Trigger (Mellow version)
