Bernie Sanders is being joined by what The New Yorker called, “the last greatest rock band,” of the decade – The Strokes — as he speaks to University of New Hampshire (UNH) students at the Whittemore Center on Feb. 10 for a “Get Out the Vote” event.
The event comes a day before the New Hampshire primary as a way to get voters out to the polls – Sanders has held similar functions after being joined with Vampire Weekend and Bon Iver in Iowa. According to USA Today, Vampire Weekend’s event drew a crowd of nearly 3,000.
But to have The Strokes, who hail from Sander’s native New York, perform at the event has proven to be a big deal to the music community, as prominent music news organizations like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone have picked up the story.
“We are honored to be associated with such a dedicated, diligent and trustworthy patron…” lead singer Julian Casablancas, who is also known for his solo career and association with the band The Voidz, said in a statement about the event.
The Stroke’s first album, “This Is It,” was called “Album of the Decade” by Rolling Stone and ranked number two in their list of “100 Best Debut Albums of All Time.” They have since put out four albums.
On Spotify, their top five songs have at least 100 million plays each, with their most popular song “Last Nite” having 266 million plays on Spotify. They are also most known for their song, “Someday,” which currently has 166 million plays.
Their last concert was over New Year’s Eve in New York City where they proclaimed, “We’ve been unfrozen, and we are back,” to the audience that came to see a band that has been quiet since their Lollapalooza Music Festival gig in summer of 2019 in Chicago.
Senior anthropology major Liv Kelley found out about the concert through her roommate after she sent Kelley a screenshot of the Instagram post that announced the event to the public last Wednesday.
Kelley has been a fan of the band since she was around 13 and said that The Strokes being involved with politics isn’t a new strategy.
“I think this is a huge event considering the fact that The Strokes rarely do shows anymore,” Kelley said. “However, most importantly, it’s for Bernie which makes it especially important because The Strokes are using their fame and influence to help out a candidate who truly stands for social justice issues in their country.”
She adds that she thinks that this will help get people out to vote for Sanders, especially “Strokes fans if they weren’t going to, or maybe inspire people to vote for him who weren’t planning on voting for him in general.”
The event is free, and doors open at 5:30 p.m., with the show starting at 7:30 p.m. According to Sanders’ website, the VIP section will consist of the over 200 people that helped canvas for the campaign.
