Photographer Leslie Lyons on The Strokes’ first publicity shoot: “I wanted to shoot them immediately if not sooner”

nme.com:

The Strokes, taken during their first publicity shoot, will be on display and available for purchase for the first time.Shot by photographer Leslie Lyons after the New York City band’s Rough Trade Records signing, the photos were featured in the oral history and documentary, Meet Me In The Bathroom.Modern Rocks Gallery in Austin, TX, will be displaying and selling the photos here, with plans to share additional exclusive photos of the shoot.

Lyons also shared what happened during The Strokes’ first publicity shoot with the gallery, saying that mid-way through listening to the band’s demo she wanted to “shoot immediately if not sooner.” “I didn’t need to see the band.

I could hear what I knew was there, energy, authenticity, poetry,” she added.The band was reluctant to do the shoot at first when she met them in the Lower East Side’s Mercury Lounge. “I met the band at their soundcheck before the gig and they were not so comfortable with the unplanned nature of the shoot,” Lyons said.

The band had assumed she was press, but once she started shooting and they started playing, they loosened up. “As soon as you get off stage and capture the energy of who you are live we’ll use what you like and throw the rest away,” she said, and they agreed.A post shared by Modern Rocks Gallery (@modernrocksgallery)The band’s presence had a lasting impact on Lyons. “While they played, it seemed as if the Mercury Lounge would burst into flames,” she said. “Not since I had been lucky enough to be at a Nirvana gig in the East Village’s Pyramid Club in 1990 had I experienced something new in rock and roll.