{"id":1167509,"date":"2026-08-24T23:31:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T23:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1167509\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T23:31:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T23:31:15","slug":"the-strokes-play-going-to-babble-on-live-for-first-time-at-just-like-heaven-2026-as-julian-casablancas-calls-lcd-soundsystems-james-murphy-the-brett-favre-of-indie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1167509\/","title":{"rendered":"The Strokes play \u2018Going To Babble On\u2019 live for first time at Just Like Heaven 2026 as Julian Casablancas calls LCD Soundsystem\u2019s James Murphy the \u201cBrett Favre of indie rock\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Strokes<\/a>\u00a0played\u00a0\u2018Going\u00a0To\u00a0Babble On\u2019\u00a0for\u00a0the\u00a0first time and likened\u00a0James Murphy<\/a>\u00a0to Brett Favre at Just Like Heaven 2026.<\/p>\n

The New York band headlined the festival at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California on Saturday (August 22), alongside joint\u00a0headliners\u00a0LCD Soundsystem<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Julian Casablancas<\/a>\u00a0and co. opened their encore with the first-ever live performance of \u2018Going\u00a0To\u00a0Babble On\u2019, taken from their seventh album \u2018Reality Awaits<\/a>\u2018, which was released in June.<\/p>\n

It was one of four songs from the new album that made the setlist \u2013 alongside \u2018Lonely In The Future\u2019, \u2018Going Shopping\u2019 and \u2018Dine N\u2019Dash\u2019 \u2013 and the set also saw a playful jibe from Casablancas to LCD Soundsystem\u2019s Murphy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a pleasant surprise. I thought you retired 15 years ago\u2026 just kidding,\u201d he said, before branding him the \u201cBrett Favre of indie rock\u201d and adding: \u201cYeah, announcing we\u2019re retiring tonight to make it cooler when we play a show in two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch footage here:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Favre comparison relates to the NFL legend\u2019s multiple retirement U-turns over the years, with the quarterback having announced his retirement from the Green Bay Packers in 2008, only to change his mind and join the New York Jets later that year. He retired again before reversing the decision once more to join the Minnesota Vikings.<\/p>\n

Similarly,\u00a0LCD Soundsystem announced their split in 2011<\/a>\u00a0with a farewell show at\u00a0Madison Square Garden, only to\u00a0reunite five years later<\/a>. They have toured and played festivals intermittently\u00a0in\u00a0the years since and released the \u2018American Dream<\/a>\u2018 album in 2017.<\/p>\n

The Strokes played:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Lonely In\u00a0The\u00a0Future\u2019\u00a0<\/strong>
\u2018Hard\u00a0To\u00a0Explain\u2019\u00a0<\/strong>
\u2018Juicebox\u2019\u00a0<\/strong>
\u2018Going Shopping\u2019\u00a0<\/strong>
\u2018Take It\u00a0Or\u00a0Leave It\u2019\u00a0<\/strong>
\u2018Someday\u2019\u00a0<\/strong>
\u2018Life Is Simple\u00a0In\u00a0The\u00a0Moonlight\u2019\u00a0<\/strong>
\u2018Reptilia\u2019\u00a0<\/strong>
\u2018Dine\u00a0N\u2019Dash\u2019\u00a0<\/strong>
\u2018One Way Trigger\u2019\u00a0<\/strong>
\u2018You Only Live Once\u2019\u00a0<\/strong>
\u2018Ize\u00a0Of\u00a0The\u00a0World\u2019\u00a0<\/strong>
\u2018Automatic Stop\u2019\u00a0<\/strong>
\u2018The Adults Are Talking\u2019\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Encore:<\/strong>
\u2018Going\u00a0To\u00a0Babble On\u2019\u00a0<\/strong>
\u2018Selfless\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Strokes also\u00a0gave \u2018Lonely\u00a0In\u00a0The\u00a0Future\u2019 its live debut last\u00a0week\u00a0at Summer Sonic Tokyo<\/a>, while they were also joined by Charli XCX for \u2018Take It\u00a0Or\u00a0Leave It\u2019 at Outside Lands<\/a>, introducing her as \u201cthe queen of album sales\u201d.<\/p>\n

NME\u00a0gave \u2018Reality Awaits\u2019 four stars<\/a>, writing: \u201cWhether unleashing disses or getting deep into the weird and wonderful, a quarter of a century on from their debut, The Strokes sound more alive and locked in than they have in years. While \u2018Reality Awaits\u2019 does have its more dud moments \u2013 the opening one-two of \u2018Psycho Shit\u2019 and Dine N\u2019Dash\u2019 are a little meandering, while closer \u2018Tyrants\u00a0On\u00a0The\u00a0Mellow Moon\u2019 similarly lacks the desired impact \u2013 it\u2019s proof that letting bands go in unexpected directions can pay off big time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their \u2018Reality Awaits\u2019 world tour continues around North America this month<\/a>, before reaching the UK and Ireland in October. The dates include two nights at London\u2019s O2, followed by dates in Newcastle, Manchester and Dublin. See all the dates here<\/a>\u00a0and find any remaining tickets\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Strokes\u00a0played\u00a0\u2018Going\u00a0To\u00a0Babble On\u2019\u00a0for\u00a0the\u00a0first time and likened\u00a0James Murphy\u00a0to Brett Favre at Just Like Heaven 2026. The New York band…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1167510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,481,269,16,15],"class_list":["post-1167509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-indie","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117153096672842723","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1167509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1167510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1167509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1167509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1167509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}