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LiveDC: Julian Casablancas @ 930 Club

January 14, 2010 by Svetlana

all photos: Jeff Martin
all words: Svetlana

Julian Casablancas’ show on Tuesday was sold-out (the night of), hot, extremely loud, full of under and of-age kids dancing madly, at time completely entertaining and it lasted 9 songs + a 2 song encore.
It is all about expectations sometimes, I guess.
Which, it is important to say, I didn’t have any.

When “11th Dimension” first came out as a single Libby and I thought it to be absolutely hilarious and as a result I spent most of December 2009 not really wanting to give “Phrazes for the Young” a proper chance but as this show rolled up closer I started to appreciate Julian’s new approach more: the “must-be-on-purpose” over the top video for that song lead me to think that he was probably in on the melodramatic joke, the slow but certain walk down the Adam Green lane of showtuney crooning (they even look alike!), the pop-songs (because you can’t call anything involving that many synths “Rock” no matter how hard you try) that had such a strong lyrical component and delivery that the melody almost became a moot point (in different conversations this week I have heard him compared to everything from Jens Lekman to Magnetic Fields, not necessarily sound wise, but with where this record was going as a trend).
So-somehow, I persuaded myself that he knew exactly what he was doing and was adequately jazzed for the show.

And then the show happened. I missed Tanlines, I am sorry to say, because I was too busy having drinks and casting my Julian musical theory web (see above, thanks for listening guys) in a bar a block or two away from the scene of the impending crime. You should however, check them out because, as Cale said, I see “nothing but potential”

Then Julian, all skinny pants, leather jacket, poor lighting and 6 additional people on stage showed up. It started out slow but good, and some pedal fixing and adorably clumsy (?) stage banter later “11th dimension” was busted out as the third song in the set (kind of an early, risky move, I thought, not really knowing that that also marked the half way point of the regular set) and the crowd WENT WILD. (“You’re all screamers, aren’t you?” Julian said and they screamed some more)

Now, I have never seen The Strokes live (spending the early 00s in Savannah, Georgia will have that effect on you) but we definitely did have “Is This It” in every CD player (including the one in the shower) in my college house and we all had croon-along contests to it at any given time of day or night. So, while I cannot compare the Tuesday night experience to any real-life reference, I felt that since Julian’s voice and songwriting were what essentially made The Strokes sound like The Strokes and not any other band (see how Fab’s “Little Joy” and Albert’s solo project really don’t sound like The Strokes at all, no matter how really good I think they are) seeing him on Tuesday was just like seeing The Strokes, 3-5 years later but with more people on stage.
And no pretense that this has anything to do with anyone else but Julian and nothing but Julian.

The “more people on stage”, however, tried really hard to have their moment in the foggy, 930 club sun.
They all almost had assigned personas (which is how the impossibly cool names of the rest of The Strokes always sounded like to me: Nick Valensi, Albert Hammond, Jr., Nikolai Fraiture, Fabrizio Moretti -right? come on). There was the older dood with a long hippie goatie, the hot girl in the little jumpsuit (who played both bass and drummed while standing), someone keyboarding who was also percussioning, an actual drummer…all of whom seemed to be in their own movie (or at least song) and never really coming together as one performing entity.
I guess that’s what happens when you hire people to tour with you instead of letting them into the inner sanctum.
Still…
Kids danced.
Kids sang along.

No one expected a single old song, maybe some covers (which came in the form of, WAIT FOR IT, “Kings of Leon” (which did not sound like “Kings of Leon” at all) which was either also a knowing wink at the coverboy space KoL occupy now that a certain other band occupied earlier or the randomest thing I’ve ever heard) and then he said “Man, Encores…” and started playing something that sounded eerily familiar, it turned out to be the demo version of “You Only Live Once”.
(Fun fact courtesy of Phil: When the band first played the song they incorporated that version’s chorus as bridge into the album chorus, as can be heard here.)
Which was probably, the best part of the show (even if you’re not supposed to review “the encore”, since it is “the artist’s gift to the audience”)
It was all neatly over by about 10:30, and everyone seemed content with the show (aside from The Post) and “appreciated the brevity of it all”.

No need to make it anything that it isn’t, I guess but lets give it credit where credit is due, it was: fast and messy fun. Like that one time you met some semi-famous rock star and made out with him sloppily on the couch at some party and then lost him (damn those bathroom lines!) before it was time to actually go home together. While you didn’t leave fully satisfied, you still love talking about it.
Right?
Right.

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