Photos by Neil Van
New York City’s the Strokes unofficially kicked off summer in Toronto for the opening night of the Budweiser Stage’s 2019 season of concerts. The band was last in Toronto 13 years ago headlining a night of the short-lived Virgin Festival on Toronto Island. The 16,000-plus tickets got snapped up pretty quickly which may or may not surprise depending on your view of the rock band.
With no new album to promote or even on the horizon it seems, the Strokes were free to do what they wanted for the evening which translated to really digging into the first three albums and just a quick nod to their last album, 2013’s Comedown Machine. Only 2011’s Angles didn’t get any air time.
Kicking the chilly night off with “Heart In a Cage” the band played the vast stage in front of a pair of large LED screens. Frontman Julian Casablancas held on to his mic for dear life and sounded great. He did offer some interesting banter alluding to the weather and being denied entry into Game 3 of the Raptors/Bucks matchup along with some other wacky gems.
The Strokes are not known for being a polished machine and last night was no exception. They weren’t sloppy or anything but if you’ve seen the band before you understand the looseness that comes with a Strokes gig. The only real sloppy moment of the night was a brief cover of Erasure’s “A Little Respect” which saw Casablancas jump on drums for a short bit. Aside from the screens the band could have been dropped into a club and the performance would have been the same, which is part of the Strokes charm for many.
The massive crowd turned the place into a giant dance party and they didn’t stop until it was time to go home. It was hard not to shake your stuff through set highlights “The Modern Age”, “Hard to Explain”, “Meet Me in the Bathroom”, and “New York City Cops” before closing the night with “Last Nite” that really made the amphitheatre explode.
The band returned to dish out “Is This It” and “Someday”, sending the thrilled crowd out into the cool night which was more like the beginning of fall rather than the start of summer but were content nonetheless.
