Julian Casablancas Live At Downtown Palace Theatre

I attended the first night of Julian Casablancas' November residency at the Downtown Palace Theater in Los Angeles this past Friday, and I was thoroughly impressed.

The set featured an ever-changing series of background scenes that alternated during and between songs, matching the tone and theme of every song they accompanied. The set list featured all the songs from Phrazes For The Young, as well as the bonus tracks you can get with the deluxe version, and a cover of The Strokes' single "You Only Live Once", with just Mr. Casablancas and a keyboard player. It was a pretty adorable performance, and Mr. Casablancas sort of laughed his way through it with the audience cheering him on and singing the one line they all seemed to know, "shut me up!"

There was a bit of an uproar when fellow Strokes members Fabrizio Moretti and Albert Hammond Jr. showed up in the balcony and proceeded to sign autographs and take pictures with anyone and everyone. Considering there have been reports of unrest amongst the Strokes band members, this might be a positive sign of some resolution. We can only hope.

My only criticism would be that the sound left something to be desired, both in that it was much, much too loud and the quality of the system was a bit amateur.

To see more pics, and read a review of the show, click here.