Studio Note #21: Is This It?
The Strokes, live at Red Rocks, July 22, 2026.
Last week, Maritza and I went to our first show at Red Rocks to see The Strokes.
For me, it wasn't just another concert.
That band was the soundtrack to the beginning of my career. Their music was playing while I was building a publishing imprint, opening the gallery, traveling across the U.S. in a van, skateboarding, designing books, hanging exhibitions and trying to figure out who I was in my twenties.
I think about those years often, but never quite like this.
Three songs in, they played Hard to Explain from their debut album.
Suddenly, twenty years didn't feel very far away.
It wasn't nostalgia in the way people usually think about it. I wasn't wishing I could go back.
The truth is, I don't think I realized I was living some of the best years of my life while they were happening. I assumed it would always be that way.
Then life kept moving.
Careers change. Relationships end. The world shuts down. Before you know it, you're a long way from the person who first heard those songs.
Then the lights go down at Red Rocks. The opening notes hit. And, for a couple of hours, you're standing with that younger version of yourself again.
That's when I realized it wasn't the songs I was attached to.
They had simply become part of my story.
Over time, brands become containers for memory.
I think about the first pro skateboard I ever had. The bright orange Volkswagen Beetle my mom drove when I was in high school. The meat market where we'd always stop for beef jerky on our summer trips to the coast. The small Moleskine notebook I carried when I started doing standup during the pandemic.
None of those things are meaningful because of what they are.
They're meaningful because of what happened while they were there.
Most businesses won't become the soundtrack to someone's twenties.
But they can become the company someone trusted when they started their business. The coffee shop where they landed their first client. The contractor who made a stressful project feel easy. The local restaurant where every anniversary is celebrated.
The music hadn't changed.
I had.
Somewhere between the first song and the last, I realized I hadn't just come to see The Strokes.
I'd come to visit an old friend.
Enjoy this mediocre phone clip of The Strokes performing Last Nite at Red Rocks 7.22.26.