Festival Review: The Strokes - All Points East // Victoria Park, London / August 2023
As the darker nights draw closer, All Points East has returned to revive the latter part of the festival season. Falling on the same weekend as Reading & Leeds Festival, the 6-day event features enough star quality to make it a worthy contender. With Stormzy, Haim and Jungle topping the bill across the other days, the Friday edition of the festival featured The Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeah’s. Arguably the greatest rock bands to emerge from New York City in the early noughties, their heavy influence on modern guitar music is undeniable.
London quintet Silvertwin kicked off proceedings and opened the Cupra North Arena stage. They delivered saccharine pop that felt oddly old-fashioned, as if 60’s love songs had been strained through a Radio 1 juicer. However the results dazzled, their most magnificent moment came when they breezed into the glorious ‘Ploy’. A twinkly piano jam that flowed so easily it could have been a Beatles melody, it perfectly encapsulated a winsome performance.
Early on the 6 Music stage TikTok’s biggest mash-up master Nathan Shepherd brought his project Good Future to the stage with DJ Steve Lamacq. His breakout hit ‘Socials’ ruminated the pitfalls of online vanity with lines like “There’s more to life than follows and likes”. Far from the earnest preachings of his biggest single, today he focused on a jubilant indie throwback digging up gems from the likes of Gorillaz, The Ting Ting's and Bombay Bicycle Club. Later in the day unlikely pairing made way for a vibrant and vivacious DJ set. The flame haired Elly Jackson of La Roux fame and Jamie Reynolds from nu-rave outfit Klaxons were the unexpected faces behind the decks. Of course they played Klaxons, along with hits from Justice, Tiga and Quando Quango.
Across the field, the E3 stage offered a more jagged edge to the festival. Pop-metal powerhouse TASH fired out abrasive rock cuts to warm up the crowd. With menacing tracks like 'Chase' and 'When The Lights Cut Out', frontwoman Tara Noble has clearly borrowed a leaf out of the book of Alice Glass, the better half of electronic duo Crystal Castles.
The Walkmen brought their raw brand of post-punk to the West stage, equal parts urgent and thrilling. After a 10-year hiatus, the New York band have re-emerged with their Revenge tour. With more than a tinge of self-doubt, frontman Hamilton Leithauser declared "When we decided to play shows again we didn't think anyone would know who the fuck we were!" His lack of confidence was misplaced, old favourites like ‘The Rat’ and ‘Heaven’ served to remind us how they revitalised their genre.
Masters of reinvention Yeah Yeah Yeah's rounded off the night on the West Stage. A sombre synth march heralded the arrival of 'Spitting Off The Edge of the World', the lead single from their latest album Cool It Down. Smouldering epic 'Burning' built on the records overarching theme of climate change, lit up by fiery visuals.
Karen O was as glamorous as ever, covered in a black cape emblazoned with an blue-orange sun. After a brief spin, this was quickly thrown off to reveal a glitzy black and green blouse. But the stylish duality of her outfit was far from the main draw, how could it be? With emotional warheads were aplenty; the tranquil simplicity of 'Lovebomb' allowed a momentary pause and 'Soft Shock' laboured over the intense vulnerability that comes with exposing your sensitive side in relationships.
Their greatest tearjerker lifted from their debut album Fever To Tell, power ballad 'Maps' sounded as relevant as ever, Karen O also dedicated the song to Sinead O'Connor. Dance-punk opus 'Heads Will Roll' left a trail of chaos in its wake, whereas during 'Zero' giant eyeball balloons were catapulted off the stage, propelled by a sea of waving hands. They closed with the rambunctious 'Date With The Night', a fitting victory lap.
When the time came for The Strokes to close out the East Stage, a sizable crowd had gathered. With the line-up of frontman and singer Julian Casablancas, Nikolai Fraiture on bass, Fabrizio Moretti on drums, Nick Valensi on guitar and Albert Hammond Junior on vocals, Casablancas unleashed his signature drawl for 'What Ever Happened?'.
Casablancas has been vocal about everything from the state of mainstream music to the controversial antics of The 1975's frontman Matty Healy, this evening he mused about narrating nature documentaries and joked more than once about finishing early saying "Goodnight!" every other song, gleefully teasing fans. However sound issues rendered the likes of 'The Adults Are Talking' and 'Last Nite' to be more muted than massive, where the spectral force of the instruments were dialled down. In spite of the shouts of "Turn it up!" from fans, the raw strength of their hugest tracks shone through, translated to a nostalgic audience of millennials.
Yet while the power of their guitars were blunted, the sound situation gradually improved and paved the way for the familiar riffs of 'Reptilia'. The rousing encore featured a couple of songs plucked from the debut album 'Hard to Explain' and 'Is This It', a dynamic duo that turned the clock back to 2001. An unlikely headliner, The Strokes proved that their ramshackle tunes can go far beyond your local indie disco.
Words by Oliver Evans
Images provided by The Outside Organisation // Photo Credit: Jennifer McCord
