MusicCityNashville.net: The Strokes and Thundercat Complete a Red Hot Triple Lineup in Nashville

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The Strokes and Thundercat Complete a Red Hot Triple Lineup in Nashville

by Rich and Laura Lynch

The forecast for August 12, 2022 was ideal for a summer concert at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee. The lineup included Thundercat, The Strokes and headliners the Red Hot Chili Peppers who are one of the most successful alternative rock bands in history. They have won six Grammys and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. So it was not surprising that the house was packed when it was their turn to present a red hot set of their hits.

The Strokes and Thundercat Complete a Red Hot Triple Lineup in Nashville

Thundercat won the award for coolest stage prop of the night.

But first it was Thundercat's turn and there were a decent amount of people on the floor when he took the stage around 6:30 pm. Thundercat is a bassist, session player, singer, songwriter and actor from California. He was a member of Suicidal Tendencies and played on Kendrick Lamar's 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly. In 2020, Thundercat released his fourth solo album entitled It Is What It Is which earned him a Grammy Award for Best Progressive R&B Album.

In Nashville, Thundercat was clad in a colorful costume that matched his bass but even more striking was the large ferocious feline above Thundercat and his crew. Their seven song set was packed with pulsing rhythms that crossed genres in energetic interesting arrangements. The funk-jazz bassist was engaging and set the tone for a night of hard rocking music.

A moody Julian Casablancas evoked Bono, Liam Gallagher and Jim Morrison at times in Nashhville.

Next up was The Strokes hailing from New York City. In the summer of 2001 they released their debut album Is This It to acclaim and strong sales. Since then it has been on quite a few "best album" lists. Their next few records did not get as much buzz but in 2020 The New Abnormal struck a chord. It was produced by Rick Rubin and the album's cover artwork is a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat titled "Bird on Money". Critics considered it a return to form and it went on to win Best Rock Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.

The Stokes opened with the hard hitting "Hard to Explain" that flowed into "Bad Decisions" from Is This It and then a flavorful "Juicebox". Singer Julian Casablancas chatted a bit between songs and mentioned that he loved country music and congratulated the Titans on their new quarterback then it was back to their moody muse. "Evening Sun" made its debut and after some debate The Stokes closed with "Someday". Both Thundercat and The Stokes played solid sets in advance of the Red Hot Chili Peppers who served up crowd pleasing, controlled chaos!