A quarter-century after Is This It reset New York guitar rock, The Strokes brought Reality Awaits, their seventh album, to The O2 arena in October.
The Strokes played two nights at The O2 arena in North Greenwich on Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 October 2026, touring Reality Awaits, their seventh album. The dates came a quarter-century after their debut album, Is This It.
Julian Casablancas sings, with Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr. on guitars, Nikolai Fraiture on bass and Fabrizio Moretti on drums. Four of the five met at school in Manhattan and the fifth at a boarding school in Switzerland.
Their 2001 debut EP, The Modern Age, started a bidding war among labels before RCA signed them, and the album followed that summer. It landed hardest in Britain, where the wave of bands that followed spent a decade trying to sound like it.
They have taken their time over each record since. The New Abnormal, in 2020, was their first album in seven years and won the Grammy for best rock album.
Reality Awaits came out on 26 June 2026, recorded in Costa Rica with Rick Rubin and led by “Going Shopping”.
Fat White Family and Alex Cameron opened.