The truth is, on the cusp of the 20th and 21st centuries, you’d have been hard-pressed to find many people outside of the 212 area code talking much about a New York City rock “scene.” But when the Strokes emerged in late 2000 to play a pair of dates at the Mercury Lounge and the Bowery Ballroom, it touched off a period during which it often seemed that few could talk about anything else. Coupling…