the strokes live at the jlc

chris and i went to see the strokes last night, and it was an amazing show. they are rock 'n roll no question. it was a straight up rock show, with great lighting and sound, and a very tight performance. i realised last night how much it sucks being digitally challenged. no digital camera, not even a camera phone. i've been surfing around to see if anyone uploaded their pictures or picked up the setlist, but no luck so far.

the boys were sexy in their lazy, dirty geek chic, don't give a shit way. i wanted julian to have babies with me, fab was a cutie and nick really needs to eat lunch. what i loved was that each song stopped on a dime and in the dark. so when the lights flared up at the start of a new song, you got the feeling of anticipation you had before the band first stepped on the stage.

i was going to try to record the setlist but decided i'd be better off getting sucked into the rock. so, i relied on my memory to present the following 99% complete list: they opened with juicebox and closed the encore with take it or leave it. in between, they played, in no particular order:

is this it
the modern age
soma (julian said this one was "for the ladies")
barely legal
someday
alone, together (encore)
last night
new york city cops (the first song of the encore)
reptilia
the way it is
hard to explain
the end has no end
i can't win
you only live once
heart in a cage
vision of division (kicked ass with the strobes and the growl growing in julian's voice by that time in the show)
ask me anything (just julian accompanied by nick on the mellotron)
ize of the world
red light
hawaii (encore)
walk on the wild side (very cool cover of the lou reed classic)

there were about 5 songs during the encore, but i can only recall 4 of them. my only disappointment is that they didn't play with the songs more. basically what we got was a more raw version of the albums. when i went to see the fiery furnaces at the mod club in toronto the summer of 2004, they were great because they did all of their songs at twice the speed without breaking for air or chit chat. it was a short show, but it blew me away.

the crowd was into it, and julian was obviously responding to it. i've looked at some of the other setlists from their canadian tour dates, and from what i can tell, they played a longer set in london. here's the review from the london free press. poorly written as everything else in the freeps, but still gives you a sense of the show.

i'm still beat, i've got my sexy post-"whoooo-oo-oo" voice, and my eyes are burning from the strobe. and i've got the t-shirt to show for it.