Twenty years ago, rock 'n' roll was considered every bit as dead as it is in 2020. Rave and electronica were where the cool kids were at, boy-band pop ruled radio and MTV, and the only guitar acts making any impact pop-culture-wise were Limp Bizkit, Korn, and the Rainbow Butt Monkeys. Then, seemingly out of nowhere (which was to say the pre-Internet American underground), a new wave of retro-fixated bands suddenly became the coolest thing since Kurt Cobain and the great alternative explosion of 1991. Right on the frontlines with the White Stripes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Liars were the Strokes. The general conscensus was the group was headed for superstardom. And while the path the group has taken has been somewhat unconventional, the last time we checked none of their former peers were headlining Rogers Arena, which the Strokes do tonight (Thursday [March 5]).

BETTER LOOKING THAN YOU  One of the sad realities of life is that some people are better-looking than others. And a truly fortunate few are lucky enough to not only be obscenely beautiful, but also radiate cool. Think James Dean. Or Exile-era Mick Jagger. Or Kendrick Lamar. When the Strokes first bubbled out of the New York City underground circa 2000, a good deal of the hype centred around the fact that band looked as hot as it sounded. Bloodlines played a part of that. (Singer Julian Casablancas is the offspring of modelling-agency mogul John Casablancas and Miss Denmark supermodel Jeanette Christiansen; guitarist Albert Hammond Jr.’s parents were ’70s hitmaker Albert Hammond and Argentine model Claudia Fernández.) But the group also dressed great, making ripped jeans and unwashed denim jackets look like high fashion, and coming across as effortlessly styling when they put on the skinny ties and suit jackets. The Strokes were the kind of band that made you look at the TV after the release of 2001's debut album Is This It and think “I could never be as beautiful, stunningly hip, and completely fashionable as them.” Guess what—you were wrong. In a 2001 interview with the Guardian, Casablancas suggested that the only real superpower the Strokes had was their music, and everything else was an illusion. “I think the truth is we’re normal people,” he said. “And we play music that’s really good, and that makes us look and feel cool. Sometimes it can be misinterpreted, and the press make out that one, we’re so cool; and two, we just play random pop songs. Really, that’s not it. If we were 40 years old and ugly, people would still be going, ‘These are some cool guys.’ ”

PEEL IT AND SEE  There’s an old saying that goes something like “The first Velvet Underground record sold only 30,000 copies in its first five years, but everyone who bought one those 30,000 copies started a band.” (In case you’re ever on Jeopardy!, the original quote is from Brian Eno, with countless folks riffing on it since then). The formation of the Strokes can be traced back to Pierre Fraiture (brother of Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture) giving a Velvet Underground record as a Christmas gift to Casablancas back when the future frontman was in high school. According to a 2003 Rolling Stone article for the Strokes’ sophomore outing, Room on Fire, the 1960s New York art-scene outsiders blew the minds of Fraiture, Casablancas, Hammond, drummer Fabrizio Moretti, and guitarist Nick Valensi. Eventually, they decided to start a band, with the goal of being the best thing since the Velvet Underground. Casablancas recalled that the inspiration for the Strokes “revolved around taking the Velvet Underground and thinking, ‘If only they were really famous.’ And the goal was to be really cool and nonmainstream, and be really popular. Why does everything that has to be big and popular suck? I got a problem with that, so I’m trying to do something about it.”

BOTTOMS UP, BOTTOMING OUT There’s a weird thing about drugs, drinking, and, really, anything that feels great despite being bad for you: it’s all fun until it isn’t. In her book Meet Me in the Bathroom, author Lizzy Goodman recounts the Strokes going from being one of the biggest buzz bands on the planet to burning out inside of five years. When Room on Fire was slagged as something that sounded like Is This It only not as catchy, the negativity was compounded by the band’s members watching contemporaries like the Killers blow up into stadium-size acts. The Strokes' own shows, meanwhile, were sloppy and frequently drunken, with tensions eventually taking their toll on the creative process. “That’s probably the first time I noticed it had stopped being fun, the recording of First Impressions [of Earth],” Hammond recalls in the book. “That’s when things started getting into the gap: Friends, girlfriends, strangers would all start coming in, being like, ‘You should be a bigger band,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, we should be a bigger band…’ For as strong as we were and as close as we were, we weren’t close or strong enough to fight that.”

PAYING THE BILLS  When, after an extended hiatus, the Strokes returned to action in 2009 with Angles, the reviews were generally positive, but there were indicators the time off did the band no favours. Whereas previous releases had Casablancas writing almost everything, Angles was billed as the band’s first true collaborative outing. In an interview with MySpace Music (that’s right—MySpace!!), guitarist Valensi suggested that the creative process was marked by “undertones of hostility and resentment”. It was hard to determine whether he meant that as a good or bad thing. One thing was certain: namely that the Strokes weren’t exactly back in the saddle because they missed each other. “It took time,” Valensi said of the decision to work together again. “Maybe everyone needed money or something. ‘We gotta pay our mortgage so may as well get this going again.’” Some folks make music because they have to. And others do it because they need to.

WELCOME BACK  Go away for long enough, and people will eventually start to miss you—especially if there was a time when they loved you as the greatest band on Earth. Bonus points will be awarded if you take elaborate steps to refashion yourself as more reclusive than J.D. Salinger after Catcher in the Rye. The Strokes went dark for a long time after the release of 2013’s poorly received Comedown Machine, the band’s members keeping busy with solo work and side projects. In late 2018, the band hinted it was coming out of yet another hibernation by announcing a summer 2019 appearance at Spain’s Bilbao BBK Live Festival. A press release for that show also promised that the Strokes were plotting “a global comeback”. True to their word, the band’s members spent part of last year in Malibu recording The New Abnormal, an album they haven’t exactly been making the talk-show rounds to drum up hype for. Here’s what little information we do have: it was recorded with some degree of input from Rick Rubin, although that was only confirmed by Albert Hammond Sr., who told the West Australian last year “They’re making a new album now with a great producer called Rick Rubin. I speak to my son every day and he says that they’re so happy.” For the cover art, the Strokes tapped the archives of the late Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose painting Bird on Money will adorn The New Abnormal, which hits record stores in early April. And other than that, the band isn’t saying much, preferring to let advance singles like “At the Door” and “Bad Decisions” do the talking. It’s a strategy that’s working. Despite not having a bona fide smash since Is This It, the band’s current tour sees it headlining hockey rinks like Rogers Arena—where fans will take one look at the stage and marvel ‘These are some cool guys.’”