Leslie Lyons

In December 2000, Jim Merlis and Ken Weinstein at Big Hassle Media messengered over (via a human!) the three-song demo that would become the Rough Trade release The Modern Age from the Strokes. They knew my taste in music and wanted to know if I'd like to come to see the band play at the Mercury Lounge where they had a month-long residency. Midway through my 'listening session' with the demo, I called Jim and said we should shoot immediately if not sooner. I didn't need to see the band, I could hear what I knew was there; energy, authenticity, poetry. Jim hooked it up.

I met the band at their soundcheck before the gig and they were not so comfortable with the unplanned nature of the shoot. 'I'm not press!" I told them. "I'm here for YOU. Let's just start shooting as soon as you get off stage and capture the energy of who you are live and we'll use what you like and throw the rest away," I said. They agreed.

While they played, it seemed as if the Mercury Lounge would burst into flames. Not since I had been lucky enough to be at a Nirvana gig in the East Village's Pyramid Club in 1990 (that famous show with Iggy Pop in the crowd), had I experienced something new in rock-n-roll. The Strokes shifted the energy back to something familiar while moving us forward at the same time.

I followed the band to the NME music festival in early 2001 and our pictures were all over the English press. At their NME gig, I remember the crowd screaming for more. When Julian said from the stage 'You want more? Ok, we'll give you more." I didn't even know they had more! It was all so new.