Credit: Raph Pour-Hashemi

Julian Casablancas denounces The Strokes song ‘Last Nite’: “Dead to me”

Mon 4 November 2024 13:57, UK

The Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas has revealed that he can no longer listen to the band’s hit single, ‘Last Nite’, which is “dead to” him.

The track is impossible to separate The Strokes from, and it helped define an entire era of indie music. Upon its release in 2001, it plucked the group from obscurity into the mainstream, making them the saviours of rock ‘n’ roll.

‘Last Nite’ not only helped The Strokes become hugely successful globally, but their debut album, Is This It, also inspired countless bands to pick up a guitar and start a group of their own. As a result, the song is expected to be part of their set-list whenever they take up to the stage, and fans will go home furious if they don’t hear it.

Therefore, as much as Casablancas may have grown tired of ‘Last Nite‘ and would never listen to the song if he was left to his own devices, The Strokes are duly obliged to perform the song at every show. As it stands, The Strokes have played ‘Last Nite’ on over 400 occasions over the last 23 years since it was birthed into the world.

Now, in a new interview with The Guardian, Casablancas named ‘Last Nite’ as the one song that he can no longer listen to. Explaining his reasoning, The Strokes frontman said: “‘Last Nite’ by the Strokes is pretty dead to me. I’m not sure why. There are some others like ‘Reptilia’, ‘Hard to Explain’, ‘Someday‘, ‘Take It Or Leave it’, ‘New York City Cops’ that are comparable in terms of crowd reaction that I’m not quite as sick of. If I heard it on the radio, I’d probably turn it off.”

Artists becoming resentful about their biggest songs is nothing new. Famously, Thom Yorke refused to play ‘Creep’ with Radiohead for many years, and Kurt Cobain also harboured similar feelings of discontent towards Nirvana’s hit song ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.

Casablancas’ latest remarks about ‘Last Nite’ isn’t the first occasion that he’s spoke negatively towards the song. In 2020, the singer told The Times: “We hadn’t played for a while, so it was still fun, but when you start playing 30 or 40 shows, the music doesn’t move you. You feel phoney. To some extent, that’s why I play with Voidz. I couldn’t care less about playing ‘Last Nite.’”

The frontman added: “Really, it’s similar to listening to a song. I get sick of songs quickly. Even Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata.’ You listen to that enough, you will get sick of it.”

Are The Strokes on tour?

In 2024, The Strokes have only played one concert which took place at Chicago’s Credit Union 1 Arena on March 8th. The show was a benefit for Democratic candidate Kina Collins, but she was unsuccessful in her bid at the primaries.

As it stands, The Strokes have no further tour dates listed in their calendar, but they are still an active outfit.

In September, Casablancas released his third album with his other band The Voidz, Like All Before You, and recently completed a run of shows in New York.