Strokes hurtle through styles and eras
By: Tom Moon - Philadelphia Inquirer
October 12th 2003 3:01am
Somewhere in the middle of "Reptilia," one of several riveting new songs the Strokes played during their tour-opening show Thursday at the Tower Theater, the time-traveling genius of the much-hyped New York quintet came into sharp focus.
Guitarist Nick Valensi, head down, was battering the fretboard at an 8-to-the-bar clip, in a wood-chopping motion that recalled the relentless stutter of late-'70s new wave. The rest of the rhythm section countered with an equally anxious pulse that had a bit of Carl Perkins in it, plus a nervousness that evoked the ready-to-explode themes of Chuck Berry.
Meanwhile at stage center, Julian Casablancas, the songwriter and singer, did his best impression of a tormented '80s shoegazer, his long-held phrases bringing the doleful phrasing of the Cure's Robert Smith into the hectic espresso-and-cell-phones era.
In most cases, such a confluence of eras and musical ideas would eventually end in a spectacular high-concept train wreck. The Strokes, however, are not your typical rock scholars. In the course of an hour-long set that was alternately disciplined and ragged, the band seemed to stumble haphazardly onto those references.
Songs written in the somber anthem style perfected by U2 would, by the second verse or so, start to float off the ground. Or a particularly intricate guitar phrase, such as the one framing the acidic new "Under Control," would send sparks flying, transforming an ordinary four-on-the-floor beat into deliciously twitchy and impulsive music. Just when the band's cherished juxtaposition of gloom and glam started to grate, the rhythm section would cut through the torpor with a lacerating and irreverent beat, a blazing arrow shot from some bygone era of rock-and-roll.
The nearly sold-out show, which had no encore, was the first on the tour to promote the Strokes' long-awaited second album, Room on Fire. The band hasn't performed much in the last year, but there wasn't evidence of rust on the machine: Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr. worked simple rhythm-guitar phrases with dental-drill precision, hitting the same nerve repeatedly, until the simplest motifs sounded like weapons. Casablancas, who is still trying to figure out how much of a typical rock frontman he wants to be, sounded earnest - that is, when his voice peeked through the thicket of guitars.
Though everything from the Strokes' debut disc was faithfully rendered (particularly the apt set-closing "Take It Or Leave It"), the evening's biggest surprises were the songs from the new album, which the crowd received with the enthusiasm usually reserved for hits.
Room on Fire is a logical follow-up to Is This It?, not a radical departure, and at times during the tight recorded versions, the band sounds constrained, as if it's pulling punches. Live, numbers such as "Automatic Stop" seemed much freer than their recorded counterparts. The pieces started out hot and hurtled along at a zinging clip.
The fast-rising Southern rock band Kings of Leon opened and managed a similar, if less wide-ranging, feat of era-blending. Particularly when guitarist Caleb Followill and his brother, drummer Nathan, harmonized on "Molly's Chambers," the Kings communicated with the resolve of punk-rockers.
 Copyright ©2003 Philadelphia Inquirer. All Rights Reserved.
| 
