It was the night before Thanksgiving and I had two choices. I could go out to a local bar, see all my old friends from high school and end up eating a roast beef sandwich at 2 AM by myself (like last Thanksgiving) or grab a ticket to the Julian Casablancas show at the House of Blues. I chose the latter, not that this was such an obvious choice. I’m self-admittedly only a casual Strokes fan and didn’t exactly make it through the eleven minute Julian Casablancas and the Voidz single that came out with this past summer.  In fact, before I went to this show I didn’t listen to a single Julian Casablancas solo song, if you don’t count the Daft Punk masterpiece.

I had plans to meet my friend who was a real Strokes and Casablancas fan and I figured he could clue me in on what I’ve been missing out on. When I told him I liked “Taken for a Fool” from 2011’s Angles and “Tap Out” from Comedown Machine, he texted me that shameful face emoji and gave me a quick text lesson how the first three albums are great and Angles and Comedown Machine suck. He didn’t end up going anyway. Like almost everyone else in the city, he went home to the burbs.

So it was me and a half filled House of Blues. I like the House of Blues half filled (though I’m sure they don’t) because you can get a beer easily and a casual observer like me can stand in the back and take in a rock show without feeling like a complete loser.

Shabazz Palaces was already playing when I came in. The experimental hip hop group was seriously bad ass. This definitely wasn’t your typically distorted bass live hip hop act. The second half of their set was filled with tribal instrumentation and steady beats. I totally dug this.

Casablancas and the Voidz came out amidst a backdrop of chess pieces and dove right into their set. The second song of the night was a collaboration between the Voidz and Shabazz Palaces and was my favorite song of the night, by far. I remember thinking to myself that if this is how this show is going to go, it’s going to be incredible.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t soon after that I realized that this moment was fleeting and anything resembling it wouldn’t surface again. In fact, anything resembling anything Casablancas has ever done before didn’t appear for the rest of the night. The majority of the debut Voidz album that they picked from ended up being similar to that noisy industrial thrash punk of the eleven minute single “Human Sadness.” As much as I enjoyed losing my mind a little bit during that epic, the rest of the set wore on.

Casablancas is definitely less melodic than I was used to hearing him, but once again I’m not an expert on his material and in a way I guess I was hoping for a Strokes show. Instead, with the Voidz he uses his voice more straight up as an instrument rather than a communicative tool. Most of his lyricism was inaudible, his distorted vocals coming through the microphone only adding to the aesthetics of what the Voidz seem to be going for.

We got some fun banter from Casablancas when he addressed the crowd with “who let the dogs out?” Not sure what he was referring to, maybe this dude was just hammered. If his staggering around stage was any indication, or the fact that he barely stepped in the lights for most of the night, my best guess would be that he was.

We did get a sweet “Ize of the World,” the only song I was familiar with, more than halfway through the set which he referred to as a “cover.” It was a pleasure to hear because at most points the show mostly ended up being a noisy mess.

If there is one thing that should be said to summarize this show it’s that the Voidz are definitely their own thing and should probably take Casablancas’ name off the bill. Using his name to get suckers like me in the door is a wise move, but don’t expect to hear anything even close to the blissful melodic garage rock of the Strokes.