Last night we spent like 15 hours "going in" at the Hennessey Artistry party with live performances by Kanye, the Strokes, Carl Cox and Goldfrapp. We're not exactly sure how we got invited - the thing was like, executived-out and downtown was definitely not in the building (do the Strokes still count as downtown?), but whatever, we're like magazine executives and shit so we felt comfortable. (A bottle each of Hen-roc didn't hurt, either.)
We're gonna let the photos tell the story, but let us just say that the Strokes sounded fucking awesome. Henney didn't cut corners on the soundsystem and Capitale has gotta be one of the smaller rooms the band has played in a while, so we were up front doing magic fingers and hair thrashing and air guitar and pissing off the people around us who just wanted to, like, be still and enjoy the rock (not a sentiment we share). Also: we gotta hand it to Fab & The Boys - they're not trying to shove the newest album down our throats. The last like three or four songs were from Is This It and we seriously respect the fuck out of them for putting on the best live show possible instead of being too cool for their own most major jams. Respect every time. Kanye had a little bit of trouble getting the crowd on his side, but he brought out Pharrell on his side so maybe it doesn't matter? Anyway, it was a big night. Enjoy the snappity snaps.