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October 10-16, 2002 scene and heard Is This Still It?
Without access to The Electric Factory’s concession receipts, it’s impossible to determine whether more Twizzlers and Coke were sold than beer at Sunday night’s show, but it’s a safe bet that the mostly sub-drinking age audience was more interested in getting hopped up than losing control. While the light show blinded and smoke machines went into overdrive, the illusion of chaos never quite clicked into place; The Strokes may be many things -- the saviors of rock, pretty-boy poseurs, or possibly both -- but spontaneous is surely not one of them. Value-for-money advocates might note the differential between the $27.75 ticket price and the band’s well-under-an-hour set (as an hourly wage that puts them not too far below The Rolling Stones, for whom they recently opened a handful of shows), but the evidence is that The Strokes were giving it all they had -- which is to say in the year and a half since they were playing for free every week at The Five Spot, they’ve managed to add about four songs to their set. Though the band barely moves about the stage, there’s no lack of energy in the playing: “Last Night” bopped and the Voidoids-esque “Alone, Together” crackled and hummed, seeming to yearn for a larger space to contain it. But if “rock” -- whatever that means -- contains any hint of danger, any sense that a good song is just a temporary prison for energy that can’t truly be contained, then The Strokes are about as rock as The Archies. Rock revival? When Strokes fans start flooding Swingin’ Neckbreakers shows, then we’ll see. 
-- Respond to this article in our Forums -- click to jump there
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