The Strokes3Arena, Dublin\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a glaring contrast throughout The Strokes<\/a>\u2019 sold-out show at 3Arena on Wednesday night between the New York indie band\u2019s jaded nonchalance and the enthusiasm with which their music is lapped up by an audience that, on average, looks a good 25 years younger than the musicians on stage.<\/p>\n Being too cool for school was key to the appeal of The Strokes from the beginning of their spectacular rise in the early 21st century \u2013 fair enough given that the school where the core members of the group met was the \u20ac175,000-a-year Institut Le Rosey, in Switzerland.<\/p>\n But, whereas projecting studied indifference is fine when you\u2019re playing one of the dingy New York clubs where The Strokes cut their teeth, it\u2019s perhaps less so when you\u2019re demanding \u20ac100 a head for people to come and see you in an arena.<\/p>\n They fell off their tightrope in spectacular style several days before Dublin, when fans in Newcastle were disappointed by the band apparently cutting short their encore to obey a curfew. Back in the day that might have come across as sticking two fingers to the man. But when you\u2019re charging the nosebleed prices the Strokes are looking for on this tour \u2013 all in, my seat (with less than stellar views) cost a whopping \u20ac113 \u2013 you need to put on a show and fake some of the enthusiasm that has long been their kryptonite.<\/p>\n They appear to have received that message at their Dublin show, serving up the sort of nostalgia that their overwhelmingly Gen Z audience craves while largely glossing over their dreadful latest album, Reality Awaits.<\/p>\n The band rewind to their 2001 debut, Is This It, a love letter to old-school New York postpunk that has become a treasured artefact for those too young to remember the Y2K era, let alone the genre\u2019s roots in the dystopian 1970s.<\/p>\n These songs really are special \u2013 all the more so for their apparent effortlessness. Coasting on Albert Hammond jnr\u2019s deft guitar janglings, Hard to Explain exudes a scuzzy indie magic that sweeps you away from the soulless corporate purgatory of 3Arena<\/a> back to whatever crumbling alt-rock hovel it first took shape in.<\/p>\n A grungy urgency intrudes on Reptilia, the standout from Room on Fire, their second album, from 2003, a record conceived in the glare of the overnight rise that made The Strokes the most fashionable band on the planet until their apparent lack of interest caught up with them.<\/p>\n