Julian Casablancas and The Strokes lit up Chicago’s United Center Wednesday night with a tight set spanning nearly their entire catalog, mixing deep cuts from “Is This It” with songs from their first album in six years—while a few Auto-Tune choices and offstag
When The Strokes walked onstage at the United Center on Wednesday, it didn’t feel like a band celebrating a milestone. It felt like the band still had something urgent to prove.
Julian Casablancas opened “Last Nite” with the casual disbelief of a singer used to random turns—like the one Wednesday’s crowd couldn’t miss: Casablancas had been in the same hotel in Chicago as former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It sounded like the setup of a joke. but he framed it as one more crossed path in a week when celebrities and dignitaries were converging for the opening of the Obama Presidential Center. while the rest of the city kept moving.
For The Strokes, Wednesday night was about more than a stop in Chicago. Their “Reality Awaits” Tour rolled through town celebrating the band’s first new album in six years. with the record slated for release July 24. It also carried a second. quieter anniversary: 25 years since their 2001 debut “Is This It. ” the album that crowned them demigods of the indie rock scene.
They didn’t show their age. Across 100 minutes. The Strokes dug deep into their catalog. landing on 19 songs that carried the bottled-up vigor of the teens and young adults who formed the group nearly three decades ago. The performance came shortly after their appearance at Bonnaroo. and the band had just kicked off the stadium tour Monday in Michigan. which seemed to put extra fuel in the tank—leading to peak sound that felt like a step up from previous performances. The last time The Strokes were in Chicago was in 2024. when they played a benefit supporting 7th Congressional District candidate Kina Collins.
Casablancas, flanked by neon stage lights, laser special effects and lightning bolt-shaped props, was joined by guitarists Albert Hammond Jr. and Steve Schiltz, who was filling in for Nick Valensi. On bass was Nikolai Fraiture, and on drums was Fabrizio Moretti. They tore through thunderous staples like “Hard to Explain” and “The Adults are Talking. ” and then let the set breathe with songs that have always landed differently live. including “Ode to the Mets” and “Meet Me in the Bathroom”—the shared title of the 2017 book and 2022 documentary that examine the early 2000s musical zeitgeist in New York.
Back then, it was a specific moment: post-9/11 bands like The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Interpol assembled and redefined rock music. Today, bands such as Geese and Brigitte Calls Me Baby of Chicago are held up as reverent descendants of that lineage.
What the night made clear was how engineered their sound still is. The band’s blend—garage rock, synth pop and post-punk—felt less like nostalgia and more like excavation. Watching them on songs such as “Take It or Leave It. ” with its heavy guitar tones and breakneck speed. felt like hearing a well-preserved fossil being pried loose from the era. The opening riffs of “What Ever Happened?” hit with matching force. and on “Juicebox. ” Casablancas leaned into the intensity. howling and barking as the song surged.
Even Casablancas’ stage personality, usually distant, provided sparks of something closer to absurdly human. He drifted away from his trademark aloofness in oddball banter—one minute discussing the Ozempic commercial jingle. the next wondering about the choking hazards of guitar picks. In deadpan humor. he told the crowd he’d see them in hell and admitted. “I don’t know how to say common human greetings. ” while hiding behind his trademark shades.
But the night wasn’t spotless. A couple moments landed as faux pas. especially the live introduction of new songs “Going Shopping” and “Falling Out of Love.” Both have been criticized for the band’s use of Auto-Tune. Performed live. the songs sounded a bit less robotic than their recorded versions. but the creative decision still sounded like a head-scratcher. The criticism wasn’t just technical; it pointed at a deeper concern: the Auto-Tune choice felt like it hollowed out Casablancas’ voice. With his crooner capability, the Auto-Tune felt like a crutch for something that was never broken in the first place.
There’s also uncertainty built into the release timeline itself. The band has announced “Reality Awaits” has been pushed back a month from its original target date of June 26, though without much explanation.
Still, those sticking points barely slowed the momentum. The show came alive through crowd interaction in a way that made the room feel bigger than the stage. The packed house at the UC added depth to the night. from an en masse Charlie Brown dancing to “Someday” to a group singalong of “Last Nite.” By the end. the demand for an encore rose into one of the loudest bids in recent memory—and it was deserved. The band obliged with a final triplet: “Bad Decisions. ” “12:51” and “The Modern Age. ” the inaugural song that started The Strokes’ journey.
And then, just as the moment seemed to close, Casablancas left it open. “We look forward to seeing more of you in … I don’t know,” he said, offering a loose invitation for the future, before adding, “We’ll try to keep playing music.”
The set list for Wednesday’s show included:
Killing Lies; Hard to Explain; Going Shopping; Juicebox; Someday; Ode to the Mets; Ize of the World; Take It or Leave It; Life Is Simple in the Moonlight; What Ever Happened?; One Way Trigger; Falling Out of Love; The Adults Are Talking; Last Nite; Meet Me in the Bathroom; Reptilia.
Encore: Bad Decisions; 12:51; The Modern Age.
The band’s next visit is slated for June 17, 2026 at the United Center.
The Strokes Julian Casablancas Reality Awaits tour United Center Chicago Is This It Auto-Tune Reality Awaits album release July 24 June 26 pushback Last Nite