Review: The Strokes make it brief

Kirk Baird

Thursday, Jan. 31, 2002 | 8:28 a.m.

Ah, so this is it.

America's reigning band o' the week, The Strokes, made its first Las Vegas appearance Wednesday night at House of Blues at Mandalay Bay.

Formed in 1999 by five New York schoolmates, The Strokes have already received critical plaudits from the likes of Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly and the British music periodical Q magazine.

Which is perhaps the group's biggest problem: At some point, the band began to believe the hype.

Sure, The Strokes are good -- at times, very good. But there are a lot of very good bands out there, most of whom are relegated to the musical fringe.

For those who couldn't get tickets to The Strokes' sold-out concert, don't worry; there is very little that separates listening to the band's only CD, "Is This It," from the live experience, other than a few more expletives in the live show. What you hear on your car stereo on the way to work or at home while cleaning the house is almost exactly what you get in person.

The few exceptions Wednesday night included two new tracks presumably to appear on the band's forthcoming album, "Meet Me in the Bathroom," and a number that lead singer Julian Casablancas introduced as "Nothing." Both were more of the poppy, lo-fi variety found on the band's album.

The set list also included "New York City Cops," a song they yanked from their album shortly after the record's release almost a month after Sept. 11. With lyrics such as "New York City cops/They ain't too smart ... They act like Romans/But they dress like Turks," it was probably a wise move on the part of the band and its management to limit the song to the CD's international release.

In all, the band cranked out 14 songs -- including the album "Is This It" in its entirety -- and finished in less than an hour. While this may not come as a surprise to anyone with The Strokes' record, itself just under 36 minutes in length, why the band doesn't throw in a few covers to expand its set is a mystery.

For example, since the group is compared favorably to The Velvet Underground, why not include a cover of "Heroin" or "Venus in Furs" or "Candy Says"? An old Roxy Music cover from the early '70s also would work well with the band's music. Or even a song from Guided By Voices, a band The Strokes opened for last year and have covered in the past.

Instead, The Strokes were content to lay waste to some of the band's instruments at the end of the show, thus ensuring there would be no encore.

A concert highlight was fellow New York band Longwave.

Part lo-fi, part shoegazer, Longwave showed as much onstage ability as the much-heralded headliner.

Not that anyone would know, since the band finished up more than an hour before The Strokes took the stage, with the club not even at half-capacity.

Instead, most of the latecomers were "treated" to a one-man show, Har Mar Superstar, a singer who looks like a combination of Ronnie James Dio, Tiny Tim and Steven Wright who no one cared to see.

A self-described genius, Har Mar taunted the audience with the statement of "I'm about to blow your (expletive) minds" as he took the stage.

Unfortunately for those in attendance, he made good on his threat.

Har Mar came across as Terence Trent D'Arby without the polish, Mick Jagger without the talent and Ricky Martin without the sex appeal.

His sickly and repugnant gyrations while in various states of undress -- culminating in briefs -- prompted a few audience members to whiz aluminum cans by his head. Throw in his use of worn-out lyrics of sexual prowess, and you have all the makings of a skit only frustrated junior high boys would find amusing.

What Har Mar's true purpose was, wasn't really clear: an inside joke by The Strokes? A way of helping a friend out? Performance art gone bad?

Or, perhaps it was a form of self-mocking by the group. Even as Har Mar proclaimed his state of musical genius, most everyone else was left wondering what all the fuss is about.

If that really was the case, the message to the audience was clear: Don't believe all the hype.

Which is a lesson The Strokes could learn from as well.