Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas made his local debut as a solo artist last night at Terminal 5. See above for pics from the show by Laal Shams, and click past the jump for a review by Hank Shteamer and a set list. Casablancas plays again tonight.

The lead Stroke’s stage manner charmed for the same reason as Phrazes for the Young, Casablancas’s excellent 2009 debut under his own name: It demonstrated that this seemingly morose, disaffected rocker was much loopier than we thought.

Throughout his first NYC performance as a solo artist, Julian Casablancas would not stop talking about Alicia Keys. Between songs, he rattled on about how he had dug the R&B diva’s SNL appearance despite not really being a fan of hers, about how he couldn’t get “Empire State of Mind” out of his head—join the club!—and, eventually, about how he needed to turn off his inner monologue and drop the topic. Coming from another performer, such chatty banter might have grated, but the lead Stroke’s stage manner charmed for the same reason as Phrazes for the Young, Casablancas’s excellent 2009 debut under his own name: It demonstrated that this seemingly morose, disaffected rocker was much loopier than we thought.

Casablancas went to great pains to reproduce the busy, synth-heavy sound of Phrazes onstage. (Even the opening bands, local avant-dance duos Tanlines and Telepathe, fetishized futuristic beats.) He performed with a six-piece band including two keyboardists, two guitarists, a drummer and a woman who tripled on six-string, vocals and auxiliary percussion. No sideperson stood out and Casablancas did not introduce them: The focus was on the leather-clad frontman and his songs. As expected, the show featured the entirety of Phrazes, as well as a Kings of Leon cover, Strokes B-side “I’ll Try Anything Once” (rendered as a kind of torch song with only keyboard accompaniment), a punky new tune and one entirely unidentified number Phrazes bonus track “30 Minute Boyfriend.”

Much like on the album, it was the upbeat songs that went over the best. After opening with the hammy ballad “Ludlow St.,” Casablancas captured the crowd’s attention with the robotic, pervasively odd “River of Brakelights,” and held it with the gloriously peppy single “11th Dimension,” which elicited a roar fit for a Strokes favorite. Casablancas sold the material with gusto, pumping his fist, high-fiving crowd surfers, descending briefly into the audience and generally projecting his version of psyched glee. Even during the set’s draggy midsection, Casablancas got by on his impressively honed pipes and his endearingly tongue-tied expressions of between-song gratitude: “Fuckin’ shit,” “Oh man…,” “I love you guys!”

As an expression of thanks, the singer did treat his audience to a surprise encore, but those of us hoping for a nostalgic “Last Nite” or “Someday” got something much less polished: a brief, impromptu rendition of the “Empire State of Mind” chorus, performed as a duet with the drummer. Casablancas crashed and burned on the high notes, halted the experiment with a chuckle and waved goodbye. He seemed a little embarrassed, yet thoroughly happy.

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Setlist:

“Ludlow St.”

“River of Brakelights”

“11th Dimension”

“30 Minute Boyfriend” [Thanks to commenter below for the tip on this.]

“Out of the Blue”

“[New song]”

“Glass”

“Velvet Snow [Kings of Leon cover]”

“Left & Right in the Dark”

“I’ll Try Anything Once”

“4 Chords of the Apocalypse”

Encore:

“Tourist”

“Empire State of Mind”