The Strokes covered The Walkmen‘s 2012 track ‘Heaven’ with frontman Hamilton Leithauser in Boston last night (June 23).
The New York indie icons invited Leithauser onstage towards the end of their set at the TD Garden arena for the song, which is taken from The Walkmen’s sixth album of the same name.
Addressing the crowd, frontman Julian Casablancas said: “I’m gonna just make my dreams come true. I just love this song, and Hamilton has such a great voice, so he’s gonna come and play a little Walkmen song because he doesn’t do that in his show, well, he does, but not this one. Hamilton Leithauser, come on down.”
He added: “There he is, the beautiful man. Alright, you good? I’m just gonna dance on the side of the stage. Love you all.”
Hamilton, who is currently supporting The Strokes on their North America tour, then took over vocal duties while the rest of the band backed him for a version very similar to the original, with its Strokes like guitar riff. You can listen to it below.
Posting a clip of his performance on Instagram, Leithauser wrote: “This one goes out to The Walkmen!!”
During the show, The Strokes also played their classic hits and recent singles ‘Going Shopping’ and ‘Falling Out Of Love’, from their forthcoming album ‘Reality Awaits’, as they have on previous dates, including their recent performance at Bonnaroo.
The concert was part of their current North America tour before they hit the UK, Europe and Japan later this year.
It will be their first full run of headline dates in the UK and Ireland in over 20 years, and gigs include stops at London’s O2. Support comes from Thundercat, Cage The Elephant, Hamilton Leithauser, Fat White Family, Alex Cameron and ÖLÜM, and more dates have been added due to huge demand.
All of these shows will see The Strokes perform without guitarist Nick Valensi, as the band confirmed recently that he would be taking a “temporary break” from playing live.
Elsewhere, Albert Hammond Jr. recently shared why the release of The Strokes’ new album ‘Reality Awaits, ’ has been delayed.
The band had been preparing to release their seventh studio album, with its original date having been set for June 26. However, earlier this month, they announced that it had been pushed back to July 24, without providing a reason. Pre-order the record here.
In a since-deleted response to a fan on X, he explained that they decided to shift it four weeks later because they wanted the streaming release date to match that of the vinyl release. In his comments, he also said he thinks the music on the album sounds like that made by a “weird, young band”.
Hammond’s comments on the new music echo what he said last month, when he referred to ‘Reality Awaits’ as his “favourite album” that The Strokes have ever made. “I can’t express how beautiful it is,” he said. “I listen to the whole thing and wanna start from the beginning again. It grows and grows and becomes intoxicatingly good.”
His comments followed some pushback from Strokes fans to the early singles ‘Going Shopping’ and ‘Falling Out Of Love’, with some complaining about Julian Casablancas’ use of vocoder.