How I feel about how The Strokes toured ‘Angles’

Earlier today, in a post about Amanda De Cadenet’s appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, I ended the post with two awkwardly-phrased sentences about The Black Keys-Arctic Monkeys show I saw on March 19 at the United Center.

In the comments, some readers thought I was insulting Arctic Monkeys. I wasn’t. I was trying to make a point about how The Strokes toured Angles. I just wrote a long response in order to clarify my point. Because the comments section of nearly every post I’ve done since The Strokes’ last date of the Angles tour seems to devolve into some sort of criticism of the band, I figured I’d post my feelings about the Angles tour and defend The Strokes in this space

Here’s my comment, which is directed at reader Gimli, who thought I was attacking Arctic Monkeys with what I wrote…

— That’s not an insult to either band. I’m not one of these people who criticize a band just because they get big. It was awesome to see them (Arctic Monkeys and The Black Keys) play a huge venue, and I was 15 feet away from Pat (Carney) and 10 feet away from Nick (O’Malley) at the United Center. It was essentially a club date for me. I saw Arcade Fire and The National at UIC Pavilion last Easter in what is now one of my 2 or 3 favorite shows ever. I’m not complaining about that.

What I meant is that it’s nice to see two bands who’ve tirelessly toured in order to (in TBK’s case, slowly) build their fan bases and not just release new music, play some festival dates and crawl back underground like The Strokes.

With that said, I don’t know what reason The Strokes have for not playing a proper tour in the US or UK. We know three members have small children, so trying to build a healthy home life and strengthen their relationships with their wives is probably a huge part of it. Another part could be to keep Albert on his path to sobriety — where throwing him into the fire of a long, laborious tour would be unhealthy for him and, in turn, the band.

The personal issues formed during the recording and touring of FIOE were probably another reason as well.

I understand that there were likely reasons behind it, it’s just frustrating for me — somebody who lives in one of the three biggest cities in the United States — to only have the chance to see them live at the Pearl Jam Festival, where I had to stand more than 500 feet away because PJ fans were awarded all the good seats.

I guess I’m like most people who comment on here in that I’m kind of angry about the touring of the last record. But I understand there were probably at least two really good reasons for it.

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