2002-02-10 | QUICK! TELL ME YOUR FAVORITE STROKES SONG (BESIDES LAST NITE) sorry, times up. you've been exposed, dummy

I went to the Strokes concert on Thursday, and it was excellent.

The opening (local) band was the Sticklers. They were decent. They do a pretty run-of-the-mill style of punk rock. The drummer kept trying to do funny stuff. He kept walking up to the microphone and saying "boooo....booo". I guess he was trying to get people to boo, or something. He could've been funny, if he didn't try so hard. At one point they announced he was going to take off his shirt, and that was the funniest part of his whole schtick. He was like 95 pounds at the most, no kidding. They did a cover of the Cars "Just What I needed" that was pretty decent. I enjoyed them for the most part.

The crowd had alot of twelve year old wanna be punk rockers with cell phones. That's always bad. They would yell really original things in between bands like "hurry the fuck up". I don't know if half the crowd there even heard of the Strokes, let alone had their album.

You know how bands, before they come out, they pick what music plays on the p.a. system? Well, they played the new Fugazi album (I think so, i was just guessing, but i'm pretty good at that), but right before they came on, they started playing Michael Jackson. I was loving it. Nobody else really saw the humor in it. Only like 3 other guys were bobbing their heads along with me. The twelve year old girls didn't get it. In fact one of them chimed in by yelling the magical phrase "fuck michael jackson", not realizing the irony. Jacko would like to "fuck" a 12 year old. Well, maybe if you were a dude. I loved the music, though. It brought back memories. They played "Smooth Criminal", "Leave Me Alone", and half of "Bad". Halfway through "Bad" they turned it off. After 4 seconds of silence they started playing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". That was funny, too. The twelve year old girls were happy now.

Then the band came on, and all the girls screamed as if they were TRL regulars, which for all I know, they could be by now. (haven't seen the show in like 2 years) The lead singer, Julian Casablancas, is such a handsome guy. I wish I looked like him. He looked sad. I don't know if he was. I swore I made eye contact with him a few times. That happens to me alot. I don't know if this happens to everybody. My friend told me when it happened with Dave Grohl, that it was possible, because I have a friendly face, and eyes, and I'm one of the taller people at all shows (6'4"). Either way, I feel special for a little bit, when I think it's happening, so it's a good thing. I don't get obsessive about it. I just feel like I'm connecting. I think I connect with the music more then an average fan, anyway.

You know when the singer talks between songs? They always mumble. How do people hear it? I always hear people react to it like "woo!", like it's totally intelligible. I don't hear shit. It was even hard to sing along at times. I love the staticy vocals they have in their songs, but live, it was hard to hear at times. It was too distorted at certain points. It sounds cool, though. Julian seemed pretty drunk though. They had a 12 pack of Becks on the stage. I like the guitarist, Albert Hammond, Jr. He seems like he would be fun. He smiles alot. Doesn't look like a moody rock star. He does look like a rock star though. He looks like he could be in the movies. He just has this great thing to him. I don't know what it is. He just has "it". I like the bassist, Nikolai Fraiture, as well, but for different reasons. He looks so nervous, and uncomfortable, but it works for him. His hair is so weird. I love his demeanor though. He might do it to stand out, but it doesn't matter. It just works, baby. You know what's funny, is...I don't mean this in a bad way...but he looks kind of like Paula Poundstone. And I think HE is attractive. As opposed to her. I know that sounds stupid. And anybody who says he doesn't look like her, is just full of shit, and way over protective of a band they probably don't even like as much as me.

I don't remember seeing that much stage diving at a show in recent memory, if ever. There were people going up like every 3 minutes, at one point. The security was horrible. One of them looked like "The Coach" from WWF. He would pussy out anytime someone jumped on stage. Some other guy would always have to bail them out. The security probably only stopped about a third of the prospective stage divers from actually doing it. That's a bad ratio. I think i'm giving them more credit, too. It was probably more like a 5th. Girls would go on stage and just hug Julian for like 30 seconds, and no one would do anything. In the old days they would've got their ass beat by an angry samoan. But the whole scene has changed here. Even down to the Security. It's just weird. Everything is different. I can't even elaborate. It would take too long.

Why do people go "woo!" when the band starts playing the hit song? That is like the most unoriginal thing you could ever do. It's just stupid. People did it here, of course, for "Last Nite". It's not like it's "your song". I mean, that's the one song everybody knows. Maybe you should pick something a little more obscure as the song you "woo" at.

I still haven't heard "New York City Cops" yet. I couldn't find the import version of the album, and I'm too techincally retarded to know where to find it on the internet. I haven't got on the whole music download train yet. It just seems overwhelming. Plus, I still enjoy going to the record store alot. And I can still (kind of) afford it.

One last complaint. Why do people come to the front of the stage at the last possible moment. You knew the band was going to come on eventually, but you were too busy playing scrabble in the back, or god knows what, to get your ass up there earlier. It's not that hard waiting for the band to come on. So get to the venue earlier, and get near the front earlier. It's rude to run through people just so you can pretend to sing along with their songs. At least say excuse me, as you tear my arm off walking by in a blur.

That is all for now. Sleep well. I hope I do. My fucking head hurts. Going back to Migraine city. love, jon

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