Live music is officially back in NYC: The Strokes heralded its return, playing the first show at Irving Plaza on Saturday night (6/12) since the venue shut down for renovations pre-COVID, in 2019. The show, a very small one for the band (who headlined Barclays Center the last time they played NYC), was a benefit for Democratic NYC mayoral candidate Maya Wiley, who Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also recently endorsed. AOC was also in the house for Saturday night's show, both joining Maya on stage and dancing in the balcony (as you can see in the videos below).
Also on hand Saturday night was John Mulaney, taking a break from the run of City Winery shows he's been doing to warm the crowd up for The Strokes. Not that they needed much warming up: as you can see in the videos below, the (fully vaccinated) crowd was clearly hyped to be seeing live music again.