We all miss concerts so every week I’m going to post a Youtube bootleg to try and fill that void in our lives. This week its The Strokes headlining the 2006 Les Eurockéennes Festival.
The Strokes were at the height of their power in the summer 2006 when they took the stage in Belfort, France. For five years they had reigned as the coolest band in the world. But that title weighed heavily upon them.
Divisions were forming amongst this once unshakeable band of brothers. Albert’s drug habit turned into an addiction that emotionally isolated him from his bandmates. Fab despised the trappings that came with stardom and was on the verge of quitting the business all together. Julien’s drinking and ego had both gotten out of hand, each vice feeding off the other. A non-stop touring schedule, respited only to record new albums, had pushed them all to the edge of exhaustion.
Yet they never lost their grasp on their craft. First Impressions of Earth, their third album, saw vast musical maturation from their first two releases which played like A and B sides of a single album. Their live show too had been honed to razor sharp precision by half a decade of merciless performing. The result is on full display here, one of the greatest bands of all time at the peak of their abilities.
Less than two years later it would all come crashing down. An attempted fourth album would be put on hold for Albert’s rehab. The Strokes splintered into solo projects. It would be another five years until their next album and arguably six years until their live show approached anything close to it’s 2006 peak.