Photo by Merk/ Iggnasty Images

Seeing [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]The Strokes[/lastfm] play The Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan was the cherry on top of my very Hangover-esque weekend. Even though I had little or no sleep since Thursday night, I managed to muster up enough energy for the show Saturday night. I even got to kick it with a certain bass player from a certain Las Vegas band you might have heard about.

The party started here, on the 59th floor, with bottles of Jack, Jager, and we finished with a bottle of 138-proof Absynthe. Yes, the Kraken was essentially released shortly there after.

And alas, it was time to walk the endless miles of halls in the Cosmo to the Chelsea ballroom, I wish i had some of these beforehand:

Meanwhile, back at KROQ…

Meanwhile back at the KROQ studios, the phantom pooper lurks the halls

While enjoying my stay in Vegas, fellow Phone-Ops Adam and Guillermo, let me know how they are handling things while I enjoy my stay. The Phanton Pooper, strikes again. I did my best to pixelate the picture so as not to gross any of you out.

Finally, arrived at the venue, only to realize I got some pretty crappy seats, might as well just have watched it from home right?

These seats were essentially on Mars

This was too far for me, I was not going to settle for this, I promised my friends I would get us into the GA section. We stayed up here and caught one of the opening bands, [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Devendra Banhart[/lastfm], do their thing. Real cool dude, very flamboyant and his music wasn’t too bad either. At the end of his set, he mentioned that following him would be 5 really cool dude, who ‘acquiesce to only making soul music.’ The crowd pretty much went nuts.

Ok, his set was over, it was time to get off the nose bleeds, and get to the floor section where it was popping. So fast forward 20 minutes, and there we are on the floor, surrounded by an army of hipsters. After 30 minutes of waiting for The Strokes to come on stage, I talked my friends into following my lead and clapping and cheering, and as I had expected, EVERYONE went crazy and started cheering along with us. It was very funny, and worked three times.

Then, after what seemed like an eternity, these dark silhouettes emerged from the left side of the stage one by one, Albert, Fab, Julian, Nick, and finally Nikolai. They wasted no time in blowing out everyone’s ears with their first song, I Can’t Win. After that they ripped straight into a drum stick count down 1,2,3, then bam Nikolai rocked the building with his bass into to Reptila, while Fab hypnotized us with his melodic drum beat. They reached into their back pockets and pulled out all their classic hits. What hiatus? You mean to tell me these guys haven’t played together in how long? Didn’t even seem like it. In addition to their oldies, but goodies, they played 3 songs off their new album, Under Cover of Darkness, You’re Alright, and Life Is Simple in the Moonlight.

Even though the crowd only knew one song from the radio, I looked around and everyone was rocking out to the other two songs without being judgmental. When they ripped into New York City Cops I thought the building was going to fall apart at the hands of the crowd.

As promised we were on the floor

The crowd was so into the concert that in between two songs while Julian waited for Nick and Albert to tune their guitars, he was conversing with the crowd as to how loud they were, he said, “Alright don’t let me stop you!” and the crowd went nuts! He then proceeded to laugh, and followed with “what’s that? Don’t let me stop you? Is that a song? That’s not a song from us.”

After about ninety monutes of non-stop face-melting rock, they ended with “Last Night,” and by this time the entire audience was singin. I had essentially bathed in other people’s juices, while all five members of The Strokes didn’t even break a sweat. My friends shoe became untied at one point, and he was so scared to bend down and tie it, he almost lost it.

Under Cover of Darkness

Juicebox

The Strokes Vegas Set List

1. I Can’t Win
2. Reptilia
3. Under Cover of Darkness
4. This Modern Age
5. What Ever Happened?
6. Under Control
7. New York City Cops
8. You’re So Right
9. Is This It
10. Juicebox
11. Someday
12. Taken For A Fool
13. Hard To Explain
14. Life Is Simple In The Moonlight
15. Take It Or Leave It
16. Gratisfaction
17. Automatic Stop
18. You Only Live Once
19. Last Night

Oh look who I was hanging out with after wards, very cool dude. Only in Vegas.

Mark Stoermer of The Killers