Monday, January 11, 2010

Left and Right In the Dark

Friday I went to my 2nd concert in a row - solo. As Whitney and I drove home the previous Saturday from our now favorite Dim Sum brunch at Myers & Chang, we drove by the Paradise Rock Club. Across the marquee were the words, "Julian Casablancas: this Friday". I nearly drove the car into a hydrant. JC is the lead singer of the Strokes (arguably my favorite band of the oo's). His 1st solo album, Phrazes for the Young, came out at the end of last year. This was to be the opening night of his 2010 tour. Not sure how it wasn't sold out, but I got a ticket to the show (and then it sold out.......big time)Heading in I'll be honest, I was not expecting much. It was great. Like so many concerts before this one, it really made me like/enjoy the songs even more. There are only 8 songs on the album, so he had to pull some stuff out. They tried a new ditty they'd thrown together and some cover songs. That is where things got interesting. Julian said, "This next song........well I guess you'd say it's a cover.....#*$% it. You'll figure it out.....". A mellow, jazzy song ensued. He and only the organ player remained on stage. It wasn't until the chorus that the crowd realized what it was. It was the Strokes! "I'll Try Anything Once", the demo of "You Only Live Once", was right under our noses. By the second chorus, the whole audience was singing along. I thought I was recording the whole thing, but alas - No. There is a snippet of it that I'll post below. The 2nd cover left most of the audience dumbfounded. I was having a ball. It was a lounge singer/Jim Morrison-esque cover of "Velvet Snow" by the Kings of Leon (off Aha Shake Heartbreak - my favorite album of theirs - though I'm not a fan of that song so much.....). Solid nonetheless! Enjoy some crappy pics and some good and some dark videos - no good lights at the 'dise!




Here's a flashback: when these boys were young and untouchable...



PS- Brooklyn's own Tanlines opened - interesting if you crossed Animal Collective with African Pop........

2 comments:

A said...

That is awesome. "would you rather" see JC or AH, jr play a solo show??

Speaking of African pop, I don't know if it's all the hype over VW or what, but 100.5 has been playing all sorts of Paul Simon's Graceland lately.

Will said...

yikes,
tough call - I never have seen Albert.... He is my favorite Stroke, though....