Interpol

Paul Banks, Interpol

Funny what circumstance throws at you. One day I'm saying to Baby Niece how "all the bands I really want to see, like Interpol, never seem to tour" and two days later she's texting me saying "Interpol are touring, we have to go and see them...".

So it was that we found ourselves at The O2 Academy in Newcastle this fine, snowy November evening. It was a surprise to find myself standing - I usually go for the seated tickets in these, my advancing years, and expected that my vertically challenged niece might prefer a front row balcony seat too. No matter, we were here now, and we'd darn well enjoy it!

The support band came and went, Surfer Blood, being a little in the Interpol style, 3 guitars, an obvious Joy Division (or maybe Interpol?) influence and two drummers. They made a good noise, but they had next to zero stage presence - no lights, no movement, no character. OK, it's never easy being support!

Eventually Interpol came on, and having standing tickets, and being just a few rows from the front, and therefore from the sound system, proved to be the best move ever. The sound that Interpol make is just incredible, it's just a wall of guitar and drums that almost knocks you over. It was a sound so fantastic that tracks I previously only rated as so-so suddenly became favourites, seen in a totally new light (well, OK, in darkness - I felt them!).

Paul Banks's style has obviously drawn comparison to Ian Curtis, though I'd not paid it that much attention. Seeing them live, the comparison was obvious, and that's no bad thing. It made me rather nostalgic for those late 70's days when Joy Division were the band I most wanted to see, but failed to due to a combination of no-shows and his untimely death.

Unlike Surfer Blood, Interpol totally owned the stage. The set was constantly smoke-filled and back-lit by coloured lights, meaning that (from our vantage point) the band were almost always visible as silhouettes against coloured smoke. Carlos Dengler may have been missed for his iconic stage style, but musically his fill-in performed admirably.

The playlist was pretty evenly split between most of the albums - 5 or 6 tracks from each of  Interpol, Turn On The Bright Lights and Antics, but strangely only two from Our Love To Admire. Maybe it's their least favourite album...? Stand out tracks for me were Slow Hands (unexpectedly not an encore track), previously my favourite of their tracks, and Length Of Love, my now favourite track of theirs. In honesty though there wasn't a weak track to be heard, though Say Hello To The Angels didn't work quite so well, it's chaotic style being a bit too much for The Academy's acoustics I think.

Seeing them left me feeling excited for days afterwards (it still hasn't fully dissipated) and I'm now panicking that I may never see them again! If it wasn't for the short notice and the current bad weather, I'd be off to Manchester this week to see them again!  As it is, I'm content to wait until March next year when I'll see them in Leeds.

Sam Fogarino, Daniel Kessler & Paul Banks, Interpol

Newcastle Setlist:

• Success
• Obstacle 1
• Length of Love
• Narc
• Barricade
• Rest My Chemistry
• Say Hello To The Angels
• The Heinrich Maneuver
• Untitled
• Summer Well
• Take You On A Cruise
• Lights
• Slow Hands
• Memory Serves
• Not Even Jail

Encore:

• NYC
• The New
• Evil