One could argue—in his own, disaffected way—that Julian Casablancas is the Mick Jagger of the 2000s. After all, the Strokes are as likely a choice as any to be crowned the forefathers of that brand of scuzzy, rebellious garage rock America loves, which makes Casablancas—the shaggy-haired, too-cool-for-school lead singer—its reigning king.
But right now the king’s men are rumored to be in a tussle regarding their forth, forthcoming Strokes album—which gives Casablancas a chance to do his own thing. Fine by me! The singer stopped by the Trocadero Sunday night to promote and perform the extremely awesome Phrazes for the Young.
He takes the stage around 9:45 to an eagerly-awaiting crowd. Two interesting things I notice about Casablancas right away: first, he just sings—he doesn’t play guitar or anything. As a result, there are moments—especially at the beginning—where he doesn’t know quite what to do with his limbs and sort of just stands there uncomfortably. Second, he’s really tall—gigantic even—and towering over his band mates. (You don’t notice when he’s with the Strokes, because they’re all super tall as well.) And so you have one enormous man, clad in leather. looking totally bad-ass…curled around a tiny mic stand. Julian Casablancas made awkward cool.
Photo by Dan Bracaglia/Phrequency.com
“Everything seems to go wrong when I stop drinking…” croons the singer—slightly drunk—opening his set with vaudevillian folk tune “Ludlow Street.” Appropriate. He’s joined by a 6-piece backing band, including two guitarists, two keyboardists and two percussionists. They are EXTREMELY good, and at times even steal the show from Casablancas, whose deadpan vocals are in contrast to their boundless energy.
Casablancas’s hour-long set includes most tracks off Phazes, plus a stripped-down cover of Kings of Leon’s “Velvet snow” and a new concoction (“good shit, just for fun,” he says) composed earlier that day. Songs like “River of Brakelights” are pressing and immediate, with intense red lighting (brake lights, perhaps?), deafening percussion and a sprawling wall of guitars—while “11th Dimension” plays like a videogame fantasy, with the crowd filling in the “whoo!” after the lyrics “I’ve got music…coming out of my hands and feet and kisses!”
Casablancas starts the show tense but slowly eases up, clutching the microphone desperately and emoting by “Into the blue.” He ends his set with “Left and right in the dark”—the audience singing along loudly—then surprises everyone by jumping atop a 6-foot speaker, and climbing onto the balcony! A swarm of girls immediately attack him; he flashes them an impish grin and greets them with a hug. “Hello ladies!” He’s about 6 inches away from me and I am JUST ABOUT TO HUG JULIAN CASABLANCAS when an angry security guard charges over and Casablancas must—sheepishly—return to the stage.
He ends his set with an acoustic version of the Strokes’s “I’ll try anything once” (joined by only a keyboard) and reflective ballad “4 chords of the Apocalypse,” his twang-y drawl navigating the melody with ease. On his way out, he touches hands with nearly everyone in the first few rows—and I hear shrieks and squeals as girls rush away excitedly. Looks like the king of garage rock won’t be stepping down anytime soon.
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Brooklyn’s Tanlines open the show, a collaboration between Professor Murder’s Jesse Cohen and Don Caballero’s Eric Emm. Described to Pitchfork as “danceable music” rather than “dance music for a club”, the duo—who started out as DJs—use guitar, drum kit, keys, and effects to create a boisterous mix of funky, electronic party jams, including YouTube hit “New flowers.” Would love to see them play Making Time!
Photo by Dan Bracaglia/Phrequency.com
I took my teenage (15 year old) daughter and her friends to this concert. We had to wait outside in the 20 degree weather for 45 minutes before the seven o'clock start time. We waited in a cold theater for an hour and a half before the first act even started. It was pretty uncomfortable...and boring. That is until the concert began. The Tan Lines were cute and endearing in a serious and nerdy sort of way. You can easily tell that that they used to be DJs. When Julian Casablancas came onstage the entire atmosphere changed. The audience became a gaggle of squealing teenagers (even those of us who are not teenagers anymore...by several decades.) Julian was encased entirely in leather and took control of the room in about one second. He sang mostly from his solo album, but did a Strokes cover as well. The balcony moment was transcendent. It was pure rock and roll. A good night...— rini6
