The Strokes Play First Gig in Four Years at London Club

The Strokes played an intimate 'secret' gig to fans at Camden's Dingwalls in North London on Wednesday night -- their first performance as a band proper in nearing four years.

As announced on NME.com Tuesday (8 June), a band called Venison with a suspiciously Strokes-like logo was to play the tiny London show for a mere £10 ($15) a head. The golden tickets flew off the Dingwalls web site in six minutes. The likes of Coldplay's Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland and the Cribs' Ryan Jarman were in attendance for the show -- which, surprisingly, didn't feature any new songs.
But the gig was, of course, all about five men in particular and after half an hour of suspense, Julian Casabalancas, Nick Valensi, Nicolai Fraiture, Fab Moretti and Albert Hammond Jr. took the stage to deafening screams for opener 'New York City Cops.' It was the first of many 'Is This It?' tracks to make the setlist.

Breaking the hiatus -- which has seen the emergence of side projects Nickeleye and Little Joy, as well as a Casablancas solo album last year -- he band played as though they had had far more than their four rehearsals over the last week.

There was almost a mid-gig eruption as heavy handed venue staff began to break up the sea of fans surging forwards, to which Julian commented, "What's going on? Are you guys trying to build a human barricade? Come on man, the kids are cool."

Smiling and in fine vocal fettle, Casablancas wore his studded leather jacket and shades throughout and played around with the band's planned setlist, which also featured blistering versions of 'Juicebox,' 'Reptilia' and 'Someday.'

The setlist in full was:

'NYC Cops'
'Modern Age'
'Hard to Explain'
'Reptilia'
'Whatever Happened'
'You Only Live Once'
'Soma'
'Vision of Division'
'I Can't Win'
'Is This It'
'Someday'
'Red Light'
'Last Night'

Encore
'Under Control'
'12:51'
'Juicebox'
'Heart in a Cage'
'Take it or Leave It'