Splendour in the Grass: the good old and the new

The Strokes’ set headlining Splendour in the Grass displayed skill and the dynamics that set the band apart.

The Strokes. Picture: Splendour in the Grass.

Singer Julian Casablancas made a joke of his band playing “good old new shit” during The Strokes’ one-off Australian show to headline the opening night of Splendour in the Grass at North Byron Parklands.

It was a short diversion to The New York band’s recent EP, but the bulk of their set came from their debut album, Is This It — and it was no less fantastic than when they played it in Australia on its release 15 years ago.

It remains The Strokes’ finest work and it has lost none of its power in the interim. Last Night, The Modern Age, Someday and the title song all displayed individual skill and the dynamics that sets The Strokes apart.

They don’t play often as a unit anymore, but Casablancas, guitarists Albert Hammond Jnr and Nick Vakensi, bassist Nikolai Fraiture and drummer Fabrizio Moretti still have the chemistry and the chops to deliver a compelling rock n roll show, albeit an old one.

Preceding The Strokes on the main stage were Australia’s long absent electronic popsters the Avalanches. This was the group’s first gig in 15 years, if you don’t count the warm-up they did in the local pub the night before. It was built around Wildflower, the recently released follow-up to their 2000 debut Since I Left You. Sadly the newer work, of which most of the set was composed, does not lend itself to a festival setting. Wildflower is a mess of ideas stretching over 11 years of recording, melded together into one continuous flow by studio techniques.

Songs such as Subways and the wretched novelty singalong Frankie Sinatra ignited the crowd, but these were fleeting moments of festival engagement.

Elsewhere Band of Horses brought a sense of urgency and dirty swagger to their southern Americana, while US soul singer Leon Bridges is living proof that you don’t have to be straddling the zeitgeist or trading on a recent rock star reputation to get a Splendour audience moving as one. Bridges and his old-school soul revue ensemble is steeped in 60s soul and blues and they sell that music with a seductive swagger, not least with the singer’s stage presence and Sam Cooke sweetness in his voice.