Julian Casablancas and The Strokes kicked off their Tuesday night TD Garden return to Boston—first time in nearly two decades—while promoting “Reality Awaits” and threading old favorites with live debuts, new singles, and guests Thundercat and Hamilton Leithau
For the third morning in a row, the crowd at TD Garden felt like it had been waiting a long time. On Tuesday night, The Strokes finally showed up in Boston again for the first time in nearly two decades, and Julian Casablancas wasted no time making sure everyone felt it.
“Great memories sleeping on people’s couches, sleeping with people’s girlfriends … just kidding,” the lead singer said, after greeting the city with a grin: “Haven’t been to Boston in a long time. It’s good to be here.”
When Casablancas took to the stage, he didn’t treat the moment like a reunion announcement. He treated it like a conversation—one that included trying on all sorts of hats as a way back into a city that has changed while he was gone. His banter also wandered. including an ill-advised ramble about organized religion. and then turned into shoutouts for the Celtics and the Red Sox—an unexpected move from a band so closely tied to New York swagger.
The Strokes are on tour to promote “Reality Awaits. ” the band’s upcoming seventh studio album set to be released in July. The tour is also the first for the band without a founding member. guitarist Nick Valensi. who is taking a “temporary break.” Even with that absence. the show still had the tight. familiar chemistry that has kept The Strokes relevant for more than two decades.
For this Boston stop, Casablancas and the band leaned on the music as the clearest bridge. Their highly anticipated set opened with “Ize of the World,” the same track that opened their last Boston show in September 2006.
Back in 2006, The Strokes were touring to promote “First Impressions of Earth,” their third studio album. That was the last era of their sound to cling to the garage rock revival aesthetic that helped shape their hugely influential debut. 2001’s “Is This It.” Over time. their music moved—incorporating elements of 80s new wave and synth-pop.
Tuesday night marked a new stretch of that evolution for a Boston audience: songs in those styles, including “One Way Trigger” and “Life is Simple in the Moonlight,” were played live for the first time in front of them.
It also came with the story of a band that has survived its own interruptions. “The New Abnormal” earned a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album. but its April 2020 release meant touring plans were cut down by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Strokes were set to return for a headlining set at Boston Calling 2022. but they dropped out last minute after a band member tested positive for COVID.
Still, “The New Abnormal” revitalized their popularity and drew in a new generation of fans. At TD Garden on Tuesday, that showed in the room—an audience spanning generations that met both early-days classics and newer tracks with equal excitement.
The set moved through the low-key “The Adults are Talking” and the anthemic “Ode to the Mets. ” then toward older staples like “Someday” and “Hard to Explain. ” with Casablancas working the crowd like he’d been watching them for years rather than starting over. Yet the show wasn’t locked into nostalgia.
Two new singles—“Going Shopping” and “Falling Out of Love”—were also part of the evening, and they landed differently. “Going Shopping” fared well in the set. while “Falling Out of Love” drew a tougher reception. especially because it felt clunky right after the aggressive. tightly written “Take It or Leave It.”.
After that brief stumble, the energy never fully slipped. Casablancas seemed to settle into the crowd’s momentum, joking, “We wear you guys out yet?” and adding, “This is gonna be an arena-rock four-hour setlist, so buckle up!”
He laughed through “Last Nite,” the band’s most popular track, before the main set’s closing push: “Reptilia.” When Casablancas only had to whisper its name, the crowd answered with the roar of people who know exactly what that sound has meant for them.
The encore opened with mellower favorites. including “Selfless” and “Call It Fate. Call It Karma.” Then. for the show’s final turn back toward the band’s earlier aggression. the closer “What Ever Happened?” arrived with Casablancas throwing his mic stand aside as a callback to a decades-old act of aggression.
The first wave of the night belonged to two guests billed as “opening majestic artistes,” as Casablancas called them: singer and bassist Thundercat and singer-songwriter Hamilton Leithauser.
Thundercat—also known for his work with rapper Kendrick Lamar—brought a funky. weaving bass energy that offered Boston something slightly different before The Strokes fully took over. Leithauser. whose band The Walkmen shares DNA with The Strokes. knew how to grab attention from the start. shouting out the New York Knicks. then feeding that momentum into his own rock.
Leithauser later joined The Strokes onstage during the encore, taking Casablancas’ place for a cover of The Walkmen’s “Heaven.”
The Strokes ended the night with their full set list completed and the crowd still buzzing—an arrival that didn’t feel like a long-delayed stop. It felt like a band stepping back into a place they never stopped building in their fans’ memories.
Setlist for The Strokes at TD Garden. June 23. 2026:
Ize of the World
Killing Lies
Hard to Explain
Going Shopping
Juicebox
Someday
Heart in a Cage
Ode to the Mets
Bad Decisions
Take It or Leave It
Falling Out of Love
One Way Trigger
Life is Simple in the Moonlight (with unreleased intro)
You Only Live Once
Gratisfaction
The Adults are Talking
Last Nite
Reptilia.
Encore:
Selfless
Happy Ending
Call It Fate, Call It Karma
Heaven (The Walkmen cover, with Hamilton Leithauser)
What Ever Happened?
The Strokes Boston TD Garden Julian Casablancas Reality Awaits Nick Valensi temporary break Thundercat Hamilton Leithauser setlist
Wow almost 20 years?? I can’t believe it’s been that long.
Julian talking about organized religion… like why would he even say that on stage lol. Also Celtics and Red Sox shoutouts were kinda random but I guess Boston loves that stuff.
So Nick Valensi is gone for good or just “temporary” like they said? Feels like every band says temporary break and then it turns into drama. Still though, The Strokes doing Boston again is cool.
Thundercat and Hamilton Leithau?? I thought Hamilton was like a musical thing not a guest name. Anyway I’m guessing this is gonna be mostly new songs, because they always do that. TD Garden too, that’s a pretty New York-ish band for Boston, kinda funny to me.