Julian Casablancas @ 9:30 Club
Julian Casablancas, once and future frontman of The Strokes, brought his new solo act to the 9:30 Club on Tuesday night, leading a tight six-piece band through an engaging hour-long set of songs from his (surprisingly good) album, Phrazes for the Young. Compelling in its personal introspection and sonic retrospection, Casablancas' music sparkled in a live context, boding well for the voice of one of the previous decade's signature bands as he transitions into another phase of his career.
The show did not sell out in advance, but anticipation and momentum for the show seemed to build throughout the evening, with the crowd (which had been sparse during Tanlines’ opening set) reaching near-capacity level by the time the headlining set began. When Casablancas took the stage, outright hysteria erupted in the front of the club, as starstruck fans screamed, ogled, and (really) wept as if they were extras in A Hard Day's Night. Like the protagonists of that film, Casablancas seemed ambivalent toward the adulation, standing front and center on stage and in the sound mix, yet literally shying away from the spotlight, playing much of the set with his face obscured in backlit shadows. “Everywhere I go I’m a tourist, but if you stay with me, I’ll always be at home” he sang during the opening song, as the band churned up a robust mid-tempo groove punctuated with a biting lead-guitar line.
Indeed, tourism seems an apt metaphor not only for Casablancas's real-life itinerancy, but also for the stylistic diversity of his solo material, which doesn’t break any new ground, but productively appropriates various grounds already broken. Perhaps inevitably, this pastiche includes elements of The Strokes's trademark aesthetic. “11th Dimension,” for instance, sounded like it could have been composed for Room on Fire, but with '80s-retro keyboards taking the melodic place of Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond, Jr.’s guitars. With the exception of that undeniably catchy single, the songs played at the 9:30 Club didn't often achieve the immediate, stripped-down urgency of The Strokes's best material, but they were also sonically richer and more complex, freed from the strictures of “garage rock” and traveling into farther-flung musical territories including soul, synth-pop, electro, and country. Fleshed out on stage by the highly-skilled band, songs like “30 Minute Boyfriend” evinced a broader palette than Casablancas has previously utilized, and although Tuesday’s concert may not have been as viscerally exciting as an early Strokes gig, it was arguably more interesting.
As is often the case, the set list was notable both for what it excluded as well as for what it included. Wisely excluded was “Ludlow St.,” a countrified ode to the titular Lower East Side nightlife strip that is the only significant misstep on the otherwise enjoyable Phrazes. Included, fortunately, were two of the better songs on the album. “Glass” was delivered with appropriately dramatic flair, infused with emotive vocals and a soaring, classic-rock guitar solo. The main set ended with a spirited rendition of “Left & Right in the Dark,’ during which Casablancas made up for the reserved stage presence he had maintained through most of the show, engaging fans up-close from the (long-vacated) photographers’ pit. Following a brief break, the singer returned for an encore that featured the evening’s lone Strokes song, a spare, plaintive interpretation of “I’ll Try Anything Once.” That this was not the best-received song of the evening was a testament to the strength of Casablancas’ solo material, and the caliber at which it was performed on Tuesday night.