At this point you’d have to had to been both under a rock and off the grid for nearly a quarter of a century to not have at least heard of The Strokes.

Since making a cannonball splash into the music scene in 2001 with their debut Is This It, the band has stayed on the forefront of the post punk/garage rock revival scene. Although their albums have undersold since their debut many of their fans including myself would argue they’ve quietly and creatively evolved with their music away from that cookie cutter copycat sound that many other bands of that genre never could move on from.

Having released five albums since, their most recent, The New Abnormal, won a Grammy for best rock album that year. Making an encore appearance in support of Julian Casablancas' politician friend, Kina Collins (the first time a couple years ago at Metro), this time in a much bigger space and on both Collins’ birthday and International Women’s Day, the band played to a sold-out crowd at Credit Union Arena (most notably known to locals as UIC Pavilion). Playing through the hits and many favorites of fans including a few they had not played live in at least five years and ending the night with their best impression of The Doors during the encore.

My biggest hope of their continued playing these past couple years is for a new Strokes record soon. Thank you Kina Collins and everyone please register and VOTE.

Setlist:
Selfless
Hard to Explain
You Talk Way Too Much
The Adults are Talking
Take It or Leave It
Drag Queen
Bad Decisions
The Way It is
Last Nite
Juicebox
Is This It
New York City Cops

Encore 1:
Call It Fate, Call It Karma (with extended outro of Julian singing bits of “Riders of the Storm”)
Soma
Someday

Encore 2:
Reptilia