Staff Editor on October 29th, 2021

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By LARSON SUTTON

Finally, after an anticipated appearance had turned into an oft-postponed delay in gratification, the Strokes returned to the Forum on Wednesday night. Los Angeles was ready. The pandemic forced an original date at the venerated building to be rescheduled several times before landing on the last week in October, ostensibly still in support of the band’s 2020 release, “The New Abnormal.”

Almost prescient considering the album title, the famed venue filled as though it was 20 years before, though now crammed with masked and vaccinated masses. In essence, it was a split-screen in time, the band dividing the 17-song set mostly between its latest and its 2001 debut, “Is This It.” Yet, the New York garage band heroes instantly reminded the devoted they weren’t here to tread or trade on nostalgia.

“Call It Fate, Call It Karma,” from 2013’s “Comedown Machine,” surprisingly opened the evening, as singer Julian Casablancas hovered commandingly in the shadows, as he would throughout the night. The quartet shifted to “12:51,” then to “Bad Decisions” breaking the seal on five “New Abnormal” tracks that highlighted the setlist. Not until “Someday” did the five reach back two decades, much to the delight of the Forum faithful. Volleying between ’01 and ’21, the group alternately dropped in a few outliers up until the “Last Nite” closer.

They launched a three-song encore, starting with “Comedown’s” “One Way Trigger,” then a final couplet epitomizing the past and present bookends — “The Adults Are Talking” and “New York City Cops.” It was a spirited set, one that quenched a thirsty crowd made thirstier after openers, King Princess and Alvvays. It was also a performance that softened some of the rough edges around the Strokes’ urban grit; not as much in the sonic potency of this probing, driven presentation, but more in their palpable sense of relief simply to be onstage again.

Essentially, the world the Strokes were born into as a band was colored irrevocably by 9/11. Now the rockers find themselves on a climb back to the top in the post-pandemic reality of live music — the new abnormal. They’re certainly back, maybe later than they intended, but, for the City of Angels, not a minute too soon.

Setlist: Call It Fate, Call It Karma; 12:51; Bad Decisions; Juicebox; Someday; At the Door; You Only Live Once; Take It Or Leave It; Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus; Is This It; Hard to Explain; Reptilia; Ode to the Mets; Last Nite. Encore: One Way Trigger; The Adults Are Talking; New York City Cops

Photos by Stevo Rood / ARoodPhoto