Strokes Coaxed Out of Hiding for Governors Ball
The annual Governors Ball in New York City has scored a major victory: The three-day festival has booked the Strokes to headline, alongside Outkast, Jack White and Vampire Weekend. Unless the Strokes play a gig sometime before June 6th – when the festival kicks off on New York City’s Randall’s Island – it will be the New York band’s first U.S. gig since 2011. Three-day passes go on sale at 3 p.m. EST today; tickets to individual days will go on sale at a later date.
Governors Ball Festival 2013 in Photos
Last week, the fest announced its first performer, Outkast, and proceeded to hint at other performers with abstract images, such as a shot of TV white noise to suggest the band Disclosure (who have a single called “White Noise”), on its social-media accounts. Today, in addition to Disclosure, it revealed the full 68-artist lineup. Highlights include Phoenix, Skrillex, TV on the Radio and a solo set by the Strokes’ Julian Casablancas.
The Strokes’ guitarist, Albert Hammond, Jr., told Rolling Stone last year that the group just liked moving at its own pace. “People like watching us live,” he said. “I just think when that machine starts up, it’s a Titanic, you know, so it moves slowly, so you just, you want to be pointing in the right direction. And when you’ve done something for 12 years in a certain way, you need to reprogram everything. And that takes time to eventually get around and figure out, and since we realized that, we actually have a little bit of time and a little bit of wiggle room.”