The Strokes – Atlanta – 050815

Hey, guys – welcome back to touring! This was The Strokes comeback show – their first time playing a show together since August 2014. And THIRTY THOUSAND PEOPLE SHOWED UP to celebrate it at the Shaky Knees Festival in Atlanta. I’m sure that’s not a record for the band (we were at Governor’s Ball NYC in 2014, afterall), but wow, this crowd was ready to get rowdy.

As usual, The Strokes were 20 minutes late, most likely due to technical issues, but the fans were antsy and getting a bit testy. That explains the huge rush to the front and rowdiness during the first 3 songs. Come to think of it, people weren’t nice about the tardiness at all; they were kinda pissed. True fans aren’t phased by this. What’s 20 more minutes if you’ve been already waiting 3 hours?

Julian seemed a little surprised by crowd’s intensity at first. Maybe he underestimated just how excited everyone was to see the band live. Is that just that humble now that he’s older? The shoving was too much for me so we pulled back a little. I’m the girl who always gets knocked down. I even got drop-kicked at an Interpol show. Ya, I know. Interpol.

Seeing The Strokes at nite was unreal. It’s hard to explain 😉 the atmosphere other than it’s one of those rare moments when thousands of people come together at the same time for the same purpose, and then the music and lights take over. By the way, the lights were fantastic.

Julian did his usual nonsensical mumbling throughout the set, made even more difficult to hear because of his mic’s purposefully scratchy tone. Predictably, the dancing picked up during Someday. How it that even when you’re elbow-to-elbow (really, more like hip-to-hip) with 30K people, you manage to clear the way for a dance party? I don’t know how we do it, but it works every time. Although we will always have a special place in our hearts for the throaty growls and angst of “Last Nite,” our new “us” song is now “Under Control.” Yes, friends, some version of slow-dancing to The Strokes is possible and quite awesome.

“Take It Or Leave It” immediately following “Last Nite” is pretty much the most perfect lineup possible to wrap up the main show. Except then Julian signed off with a “fuck you!” and all was right with the world. Three more songs and, of course, “New York City Cops” had us all falling in love with them all over again. Julian even hopped off stage and down the aisle to high-five fans.

And then, we did it again the next nite.