Julian was wearing red pants. Not many people can pull off red pants. It was a bold choice, but it worked. Of course, it helped that Julian was Julian Casablancas, basically the coolest human ever (well, in this blogger’s opinion, anyway).
So where was the lead singer of The Strokes while he was wearing these red pants, you may be wondering? Well, he was performing at the Palace Theatre as part of his Phrases for the Young solo tour (the album has been reviewed on this very blog).
After a delay of half an hour (but really, what self-respecting rock musician takes to the stage on time?) Julian appeared and the previously restless crowd went completely crazy for the charismatic singer – my sister and myself included.
The set list included songs from his album, obviously, but we were lucky enough to hear three Strokes songs, each sending the crowd into a frenzy of heaving energy. Something tells me The Strokes concert in July is going to be completely nuts.
A highlight for me was Julian’s acoustic rendition of You Only Live Once. It was completely mesmerizing. And while I’d hoped to hear The Lonely Island’s Boombox, the encore more than made up for it.
Yes, all too soon the encore was upon us and my sister and I screamed ourselves hoarse when we realised what Julian C was about to sing.
‘I wish it was Christmas today’ was originally sung by Jimmy Fallon and company on a terrific episode of Saturday Night Live quite a few years ago. When Julian Casblancas appeared on said program recently, he covered the song and it was even included as a bonus track on the US edition of Phrases. Having been fans of Jimmy’s version since hearing it, my sister and I were completely ecstatic to hear the opening riff being played by Julian’s band – we really hadn’t expected to hear it at all, since SNL unfortunately doesn’t air over here, and therefore it was the perfect end to a kick-arse concert.
Bring on The Strokes in July!
