The Roundhouse is a really small venue to see a band the size of The Strokes. They usually headline festivals, but, last night, the five piece were right there, in front of a handful of fans and, maybe, it was that feeling of proximity or, maybe, it was the beer. Maybe they just have a fantastically packed arsenal of energetic hits. Either way, the atmosphere on this London stopover on a hastily organised mini-tour was electric — pogoing 40-somethings and endless hands in the air as both band and audience came to the boil and seemed to let off so much steam the venue was like a huge kettle.

One thing was clear, the history of The Strokes, New York’s best band, will go way beyond their seismic, superb debut album, Is This It — a record that will never age; still the coolest debut ever. For years, their gigs felt as forward facing as Friends Reunited, but now, sort of from nowhere, they look to fresh albums, rather than the first, from 2001, with the gloved hand on the naked bum.

© Michal Augustini/Shutterstock

“This is another new one,” slurred singer Julian Casablancas, who was odd throughout, talking about curries and lager and other unnecessary asides, as the band tore into recent single “Bad Decisions”. It sounded urgent — which is something nobody accused any songs on previous record Comedown Machine of being. The next album, The New Abnormal, isn’t out until April, but lead single “Bad Decisions” — which sounds like early REM — was treated, if not quite like “Last Nite”, which tore the floor up, at least like a song to stay and dance to, rather than a good time to go the bar. Recent Strokes albums have been full of songs written to provide a good time to take a trip to the bar.

But something reinvigorating is happening here. First, the politics, with the band headlining a Bernie Sanders rally and generally seeming to care, which has not always been obvious given their general setting of insouciance. Then there are the incoming songs. Other than “Bad Decisions”, another new one, “The Adults Are Talking”, was frantic and tight, but it was yet another unreleased track, as yet untitled, which showed that the new direction hinted at by the ballad “At The Door”, which came out last week, isn’t a one off.

Sort of mixing the synth squelch of Casablancas’s underrated solo work with something more rigid, it shows a band in their third decade rebelling against the idea that a machine can write a Strokes song, so recognisable, or formulaic, had they become.

As interesting as the new material is, though, what a riot those old songs caused. They started with “Someday”, played “Hard To Explain”, ended on “Reptilia”, with the biggest cheer of the night, perhaps, coming for third album gem “Heart In A Cage” – a proper roof rattler and beer spiller, leaving a few hundred pairs of Converse in need of a wash. How terrific to be able to see the band as they play it, rather than watching on a monitor in a park in Reading. A good night then, full of happy people reliving their past love for a band who now look like they have a future.

Jonathan Dean is senior writer for the Sunday Times Culture.

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