"What a pleasant surprise. I thought you retired 15 years ago... just kidding," Julian Casablancas told James Murphy from the stage, with the kind of ribbing only old friends can pull off.
The Strokes and LCD Soundsystem co-headlined Just Like Heaven 2026 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California on Saturday, August 22. During the encore, Casablancas and company played "Going To Babble On" live for the first time — a track off the band's seventh album, *Reality Awaits*, released this past June. It was one of four songs from the new record featured that night, alongside "Lonely In The Future," "Going Shopping," and "Dine N' Dash."
What really set the crowd off was Casablancas turning his attention to Murphy, sharing the stage that night: after the mock-surprised "thought you retired" bit, he went straight in with "indie rock's Brett Favre," then followed up with, "Yeah, we're also breaking up tonight, so our reunion show in two years looks cooler."
The Favre joke wasn't just a throwaway line — the NFL legend is famous for repeatedly announcing his retirement only to un-retire, leaving the Green Bay Packers in 2008 for the New York Jets before circling back twice more to the Minnesota Vikings. The comparison fits LCD Soundsystem just as well: the band broke up after a farewell show at Madison Square Garden in 2011, announced a reunion five years later, and has toured on and off ever since, releasing *American Dream* in 2017. Casablancas's crack basically put into words the unspoken understanding between the two bands.
"Lonely In The Future" actually had its live debut a week earlier at Summer Sonic Tokyo, while at Outside Lands, The Strokes brought out Charli XCX to duet on "Take It Or Leave It," with Casablancas introducing her as "the queen of album sales." NME previously gave *Reality Awaits* four stars, noting the band "sound more energized and locked in than they have in years, a quarter-century into their career," though it flagged opener "Psycho Shit" and "Dine N' Dash" as a bit loose, and closer "Tyrants On The Mellow Moon" as lacking punch.
The *Reality Awaits* world tour continues across North America this month before heading to the UK and Ireland in October, with two shows at London's O2 plus stops in Newcastle, Manchester, and Dublin.
