After a last minute windfall, we managed to catch a quintet often referred to as the Strokes at the Hammerstein Ballroom. We have never not had a fucking blast at a Strokes show, but it should be noted that Hammerstein Ballroom is particularly well suited for the current, three-albums-deep iteration of the band.
To wit:
Figure 1
1. The Strokes
2. The riff-raff (aka us)
3. Strokes Girlfriends
There are, in fact, seven stages at the Hammerstein, especially when the six VIP balcony-pod stages (marked 3 in Figure 1) remain lit up at all times, thanks to the Strokes elaborate lighting rig. How, exactly, a band of five people manages to fill up 6 balconies with girlfriends (David Fricke and JP Bowersock excepted) is not for us to speculate. Strokefest ’06 continues tomorrow night and Saturday. Get out a major credit card and call your local ticket broker. That shit is way sold out. Like, R Kelly sold out.