The Strokes - Reading Festival 2011 review

'They find their rhythm to deliver a show with panache'

Matt Miles - 28 August 2011

8/10

When Julian Casablancas takes to the Reading Festival main stage, you half expect him to utter something in a fresh New York drool, if anything at all. Instead his: "I hope we don't fuck this up,” doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.

He needn’t have lost any sleep on the tour bus over it though, as the group finally find their rhythm about halfway through. Kicking off with ‘Is This It’, it’s a retrospective of the indie clatter student discos have lived off for the past ten years, with a sprinkling of 80s panache from their latest offering ‘Angles’ too.

And it’s all done so coolly, the sunglasses remain on. The only real Casablancas interaction arrives as Jarvis Cocker does, for a second time, almost forcing The Strokes frontman from his mic stand to growl together on a cover of The Cars’ ‘Just What I Needed’.

It’s all done with the technical smoothness of Albert Hammond Jr who is in control as ‘Someday’ and ‘Last Nite’ rouse the sweating rump at the front of the stage into submission. Finishing abruptly with ‘Take It Or Leave It’, The Strokes bring a fine climax to the second day at Reading Festival, with most here probably accepting to take it.

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