modern crowds though
festival crowds in general
Such was not the case for the Strokes, the hometown boys who drew what looked like the biggest crowd of Governors Ball so far. (Childish Gambino, who was performing a set during the same time slot across Randall’s Island Park, must have felt a little lonely, though his audience did include Andre 3000, with his son in tow.) I had completely forgotten that the Strokes had released a new album called
Comedown Machine last year, right up until the moment they busted out “Welcome To Japan” early in their evening performance.
The big secret about the Strokes is that they’ve never been that good live, and there were moments that lacked focus during their 90 minutes on stage. But they seemed to feed off the energy of their neighbors, and by the set-closing one-two punch of “You Only Live Once” (from 2006′s deeply underrated
First Impressions of Earth) and the watershed single “Last Nite,” they had discovered their inner rock gods. Props to them too for performing “New York City Cops” as their encore, as it is by far the best song in the band’s entire catalog, and there’s always self-conscious concern about playing that tune within the city limits.)