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New York hipsters play it safe

The Strokes / Eagles of Death Metal
Eagles Ballroom
Milwaukee, WI
Apr. 10, 2006
The Strokes
The Strokes
Eagles of Death Metal
Eagles of Death Metal
The Strokes
The Strokes

Story by Tony Bonyata
Photos by Phil Bonyata

Well, they managed to do it again. Despite being rather unimpressed with The Strokes' live performances for their last two tours, the NYC hipsters managed to get me out to their live show again - this time at Milwaukee's cavernous Eagles Ballroom last Monday night.
I'm not sure if it was due to the strength of their latest album First Impressions of Earth, which is also, admittedly, not as strong as either of its two predecessors Is This It or Room on Fire, but at least finds the quintet stretching their creative limbs, or if it was the fact that their 2001 debut Is This It still remains one of my favorite records from the last decade. Whatever the reason, however, there I was, once again, standing amongst a near-packed house of Brew City youth, who collectively assimilated the scruffy hair, tattered t-shirt, tight skinny pants and beat up Chuck Taylors of the band that they, as I (at least on record), have come to love. And there I was leaving the show, once again, rather unimpressed.
With an apparent glut of money behind them now, this tour featured an extravagant, state-of-the-art light show, which seemed like it would have been better suited for a band such as ELP or Yes than a group of seedy rock & roll kids from the Big Apple. The show featured a well-balanced mix of newer songs from First Impressions of Earth along with peppy and more popular numbers from their first two albums - with songs such as "Last Night," "Barely Legal" and "Hard to Explain" from Is This It inciting the most fevered pandemonium with fans; with more than a few indulging in crowd surfing.
But as wild as many of their fans got, The Strokes, clad in varying degrees of leather and denim and sporting hairdos that were either much longer (singer Julian Casablancas and guitarist Nick Valensi) or more cartoonish than previous tours (guitarist Albert Hammond with his ever expanding condor's nest and bassist Nikolai Fraiture's odd pageboy cut), played it safe as they dealt out song after song with a perfunctory near-perfection. And by playing-it-by-numbers they ultimately lacked the spark and spontaneity of a great live performance. And despite Casablancas appearing much more in tune with his audience than previous tours, not to mention his newfound stage presence - finally injecting some much needed body language into his delivery - it still wasn't enough to take their performance over the top.
As much as I admire The Strokes' music on record, I still don't know what keeps me coming back to their live show time and time again. Maybe I'll be able to tell you when they roll through town again, however... 'cause I'm sure I'll be there.
Opening for The Strokes were Eagles of Death Metal led by singer-guitarist Jessie Hughes and Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, who has now taken a backseat on drums for this project. Their 45-minute set flexed the big, dumb rock anthems from their two albums Peace, Love and Death Metal and Death By Sexy that were as much of a guilty pleasure as they were hysterically entertaining. Mixing inane, base lyrics with smile-inducing burning guitar licks, clichéd stadium-rock stage histrionics, churning rhythms straight out of Detroit - circa 1970, and riotous stage banter that went out to "the ladies" in-between virtually every song, Eagles of Death Metal proved to be a tongue-in-cheek cock-rock act with a killer punch-line worth repeating.

Eagles of Death Metal
Eagles of Death Metal
The Strokes
The Strokes
Eagles of Death Metal
Eagles of Death Metal
The Strokes
The Strokes

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