ELECTRIC PICNIC NEWS: Why The Strokes Are Still One of the Most Electrifying Live Acts Around

It’s extraordinary to think that The Strokes’ immortal debut, Is This It, is now nearly 20-years-old. A scintillating collection of pop-tinged garage-rock, without a single duff track, its release found Julian Casablancas and the boys being heralded as the saviours of guitar music. Arriving into a musical landscape dominated by nu-metal and pop, the album’s musical economy, melodic flair and lyrical wit made it stand out a mile. Along with The White Stripes’ White Blood Cells, released the same year, it was a record that powerfully made the case for the virtues of raucous rock and roll.

Then there was the image. Is This It could easily have been subtitled 2001: A New York Odyssey. It was soaked in the best subversive musical traditions of the city, from the Velvet Underground’s street poetry to the arty rhythms of Talking Heads and Blondie’s pop sensibility. The look matched the sound: with the internet still in its infancy, the early black and white promo photo of the band that appeared in the music press had fans in raptures: showing the group sullenly downing beers in an NYC dive bar – wearing their new wave uniforms of skinny ties, suit jackets and jeans – it showed a group who knew how to effortlessly seduce the camera.

Is This It, meanwhile, easily lived up to the hype. From the hypnotic opening title-track, to the barnstorming new wave effort ‘Hard To Explain’, and the instant punk-pop classic ‘Last Nite’, it was an intoxicating trip through NYC nightlife, and swiftly joined the likes of The Stone Roses and Definitely Maybe in the ranks of all-time classic debuts.

Along with The White Stripes – with whom they quickly struck up a rapport and occasionally appeared live with – the band continued to define the rock zeitgeist throughout 2002. At the start of the following year, they commenced work on Is This It’s hotly anticipated follow-up, which eventually arrived at the end of 2003 titled Room On Fire.

Another impressive collection of spiky garage rock, it contained arguably their greatest song yet in the wistful Smiths-go-Motown rhythms of ‘Under Control’. There were more landmark dates throughout 2004 – including a headlining appearance at Oxegen in Ireland – before the band took some well-earned rest.

It was around this time that some cracks began to appear in The Strokes’ hitherto pristine veneer. As detailed in Lizzy Goodman’s outstanding chronicle of the noughties NYC rock scene, Meet Me In The Bathroom, guitarist Albert Hammond Jr – the son of a renowned songwriter whose unlikely hits included ‘Good Looking Woman’ for Joe Dolan – struggled with drug addiction.

The band’s next two albums, First Impressions Of Earth (2006) and Angles (2011), were released to lukewarm reviews amid increased mutterings that the early magic was gone. Casablancas, for one, simply buried himself in more work and released further albums, first as a solo artist and later with art-rock outfit The Voidz.

As the decade wore on, though, and particularly with the arrival of Goodman’s Meet Me In The Bathroom – the author herself was a friend of guitarist Nick Valensi in his pre-Strokes days – The Strokes’ legacy was re-evaluated and their seismic cultural impact became clear. With that NYC scene also encompassing the likes of LCD Soundsystem, Interpol and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, there were admiring notices from their peers, with LCD’s James Murphy declaring Is This It to be the “record of the decade”.

Across the Atlantic, meanwhile, Carl Barat of The Libertines – whose debt to The Strokes is clear – noted in his Threepenny Memoir that the New York group’s early success stirred his own band into action. In 2013, The Strokes released Comedown Machine, which as the title suggested, was a mellower collection of more experimental material. It was well received by fans and earned them their best reviews in years.

Julian and the boys haven’t released a new album since, but they have played a steady stream of gigs and 2019 has found them back in demand internationally as festival headliners, with a particularly stunning performance recently at Lollapalooza in Chicago.

The final chapter of Meet Me In The Bathroom was titled ‘The Last Rock Stars’, and pondered whether that might be the fate to ultimately befall The Strokes, The White Stripes et al. That may still be up for debate, but one thing is for sure: The Strokes boast a formidable array of classic tunes that always go down a storm at festivals.

Their Electric Picnic slot should be a truly rip-roaring affair.