Show Review: Interpol @ Stubbs (10/28)

Not sure what to expect here.  Could Interpol be dynamic?  They carry such a tight, polished sound.  How would the gravel grounds take to their live performance?  Follow the jump for more.

White Rabbits certainly provided an interesting and animating start.  The six-piece originally from Columbia, Missouri, now calling Brooklyn home, meandered about the stage, changing roles, plenty of percussion providing action.  Having just heard them during their early “morning” set at ACL, the more intimate setting highlighted their cohesiveness.   Obviously, songs like “Percussion Gun” and “The Salesman” were going to be highlights from their latest release, It’s Frightening, but I especially enjoyed “Company I Keep”, a mainstay on our evening playlist after the album’s release. And then there was the frenetic excellence of “Kid on My Shoulders” from Fort Nightly.  I hope they left the stage with a few more fans as they have been a favorite of mine for some time.

Interpol calmly took to the stage, black dominating the attire as expected including Banks sporting a cap.  They started the show with the first track from the recently released self-titled album; “Success” set the tone for the evening.  You knew right away there wouldn’t be adventurous solos or third verse deviations.  I would guess the fans standing just behind me as I clicked photos were sure to be cool with it.

They jumped back to the future with “Say Hello to the Angels” and finished the first three with “C’Mere” from Antics.  Throughout the set, Interpol jumped around from album to album seamlessly. They continued to blend old and new, “Summer Well” followed by “Rest My Chemistry”.  The first of the TLA songs, “PDA”, got the crowd going well beyond the head nod and featured there biggest live indulgence, a few extra bars of silence after the first chorus, thereby ruining air-guitar moments crowd-wide.   “Narc”, “Untitled” and “Barricade” followed, “Barricade” seemingly improved by the excellent lead-in.

The surprises for the night were the slow building songs, “Hands Away” and “Lights”.  The latter left a bigger impression on me, finishing with that feeling of hope that they would play the same song again.  Very cool.

“Not Even Jail” followed “Evil” and “Take You On a Cruise” to lead in to the temporary pause before finishing with “NYC” and “Slow Hands” as we exited.

I am not sure if Interpol could win over a new fan with this rather straight forward, but excellent live rendition of the best they have to offer, but they delivered a ticket’s worth of music .  Daniel Kessler is the most dynamic performer of the three original members on stage, floating about stage right, clicking heels loudly.  Paul Banks delivered excellent vocals and when given the single chord rinse and repeat songs Sam Fogarino delivered a metronome performance, reigning in an eager frontman on two songs by my ear.   Will they be affected by Dengler’s departure?  We will have to wait and see.

Interpol pulled it off, they sounded great from my viewpoint at Stubb’s, a traditionally mixed bag for audiophiles.   I certainly do not mind seeing a band that can deliver a studio performance on stage.  Was it epic, a show for the ages?  No.  Was it good?  Very.