ARTS
The Michigan Daily - Monday, April 17, 2006 - 11A
The Strokes
'punch clock
in Detroit
By Kimberly Chou
Daily Arts Writer
A purportedly sober Julian Casablancas and
The Strokes brought a mixed bag to Detroit's
State Theater Thursday night: a set of old stand-
bys mixed with heavier material from their latest
album, First Impressions of Earth.
The band presented the coach-class Strokes
package - an always-solid rhythm section, gui-
tars that were a mix between child's play and
C~ourtesy of Disney
Wait till they get to Avenue D, then it really gets messy.
Wild'
embodies
showy solos, Casablancas
swallowing his vowels and
slurring his consonants like
a minor-stroke victim - and
the crowd devoured it.
It was just another night on
the job for The Strokes, but
The Strokes
Thursday
State Theater
Detroit
Disney's artistic fall
By Sarah Schwartz
Daily Arts Writer
it was certainly one hell of a night for the eager
Detroit audience.
Forget those who think it'd be nice for the band
to change up its set list or give the understated
Nikolai Fraiture a sizeable bass solo. The Strokes
couldn't care less.
As a band, they're never quite unpredictable,
but neither does it seem like they spend hours in
the studio poring over the same track or dream-
ing about future concept albums.
But The Strokes still have a firm grip on their
fans (take, for example, the number of sold-out
shows prior to the Detroit date). Thursday saw
more than enough impressionable Midwestern
girls who still find their silver-spoon-delinquent,
Big Apple image rather exotic.
Before the show, the ticket holders waiting
outside the State represented a slice of Detroit
nightlife: the baby Ashlee Simpson clones, the
embarrassing 20-somethings wearing studded
belts and "ROCK CITY" t-shirts, the handful of
, beefcakes in backward caps more suited to jos-
tling each other outside Rick's than on a corner
of Woodward Avenue.
Showtime at the State was absurdly early.
The Strokes ambled onstage a little after 9 p.m.,
launching into their new single "Heart In a Cage."
Restless after the opening band, the crowd had
prematurely cheered at every lighting change for
the previous hour.
They jumped on the dark, buzzy number driv-
en by bits of bittersweet guitar - part spacey
melotron, part Czerny piano exercise - courtesy
of Valensi and his low-slung Epiphone.
Both Fraiture and the dapper-dressed Ham-
mond played their instruments high and tight,
pressed up against their chests. Under the the-
ater's chrysanthemum-patterned ceiling, both the
enthralled crowd and the intense, arcade lighting
TOMMASO
Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas gets to steppin' at the ban's show Thursday night.
operated at full strength. Kids on the main floor
went wild. Crowd surfing commenced, and even
ticket holders in the balcony were dancing.
"Heart In a Cage" was positively raucous, but
the band suddenly went through a sulky five-
minute funk after the song's conclusion.
Throughout the set, despite the lively crowd
reaction to the heavier, up-tempo howlers, there
were brief moments when The Strokes and the
audience did not connect.
A stripped-down duo of Casablancas on vocals
and Valensi on electric keys during the lulling "Ask
Me Anything" brought down the venue's intensity
level after the drunkenly familiar "Last Nite."
"Just me and Nick," Casablancas drawled,
introducing the song. "Just the two of us, building
castles in the sky," he chuckled. Casablancas's
Bill Withers sampling was a little more off-put-
ting than endearing, but most simply shrugged it
off and waited for "Ask" to end.
For the most part, The Strokes recovered after
dead spots with songs like the throaty, visceral
"Juicebox." One of the strongest First Impres-
sions tracks, when it's performed live it's the
brightest sign that the Strokes are growing musi-
cally. Propelled by a sinister Peter Gunn bass
rhythm, the band noisily stormed through "Juice-
box." Casablancas did a few awkward-white-guy
dance moves in between verses, still looking
effortlessly cool.
After all, the Casablancas motif essentially
created "the super model;" you would expect the
hipster progeny to at least cut a romantic figure in
a zippered leather jacket and Reebok high-tops.
Not surprisingly, the Strokes covered their
bigger hits, including "12:51" and the aforemen-
tioned "Last Nite."
The band even pulled "Is This It?" from the
vault for its short encore. But their renditions of
earlier songs, reflected the heavier, darker tone
of their new material, especially the climactic
"Reptilia."
On stage, such steps toward maturity shone
through the simplified, Cars-esque "You Only
Live Once" and the dark-pop grandeur of "Ele-
tricityscape."
So maybe the Strokes are going through the
motions. It doesn't matter, really. Thursday
night's audience didn't mind. The band didn't
mind. For an already successful rock band that
wavers between carefree and careless, it should
have been enough.
Dear Disney:
What's happened to us? What hap-
pened to our relationship? There
was a time when
I would anx-
iously await the The Wild
animated mov- At the Showcase
ies you released, and Quality 16
happily spending Ds
my money to see
a new fairy tale
come vividly to life. You took me
to faraway placesa and brought me
monsters and princesses. You once
made me believe silverware could
sing and dance.
So imagine my pure disappoint-
ment after seeing "The Wild." The
tale of Samson (Kiefer Sutherland,
TV's "24"), the lion who must find
his son in Africa, is suitably touch-
ing. And comic relief is a necessity in
every Disney movie, so James Belushi
(TV's "According to Jim"), Eddie
Izzard ("Ocean's Twelve") and Jane-
ane Garofalo ("Wet Hot American
Summer") work just fine as Samson's
friends, coming along for the ride. But
pampered zoo animals having to make
it out in the jungle - this is "Mada-
gascar" with a new logo. Samson goes
all "Finding Nemo" when searching
for his son. And how many times can
"The Lion King" be referenced? Dis-
ney, I've never seen you have to dig so
deep into your own vault to come up
with a storyline. It makes me so sad to
see you this way.
I knew something was wrong in
the first 10 minutes when you brought
out a wildebeest chase. A wildebeest
chase? All coming down the moun-
tain in exactly the same way and with
exactly the same scenery from "The
Lion King?" It's as if you got lazy
and decided that recycling moments
from one of your best films would
make this one better, presuming we
wouldn't remember.
But we do remember, Disney: We
remember everything.
It didn't have to be like this. Pixar
should be your go-to guys for 3-D
animation. You paid them millions to
stay with you. Enough said.
The animals of "The Wild" look
like stuffed toys with weirdly over-
expressive eyes - a scary combina-
tion for any child. Plus, Pixar is funny.
I can only remember laughing twice
during this film: when the crocodiles
appeared doing fantastic impressions
of New York cab drivers and at the
wildebeest chorus line. Twice is not
enough for one of your films.
I'm sorry I have to say these things.
I don't want it to end this way. You
could just go back to 2-D animation
and remind us of what we've been
missing.
Remind us why "Beauty and the
Beast," "Aladdin," "The Little Mer-
maid" and, yes, "The Lion King" are
some of our favorite movies. Please,
for the love of the seven-year-old
inside all of us, go back to the lush
animation that made you so great.
Please, Disney, please.
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