Interpol, Life On The Balcony: More View, Less Bass

Seeing Interpol in November last year was one of those life changing moments. I went from liking them to loving them, and loving them so much that I was instantly in a panic over whether I'd ever get to see them again. As it turns out that wasn't much of a problem, as their tour took them away from the UK but then back again in the early part of the new year, so I was online straight away getting tickets for Leeds in March.

In what seems like a bizarre decision, having seen them in Newcastle in the mosh with my 2'6" baby niece, I decided to get balcony tickets this time as I'd be with my 5'10" wife. How would the balcony compare to the mosh? Well hopefully it'd give a better view - the entire Newcastle concert had appeared as a back-lit silhouette and we'd barely seen the faces of band, let alone Dan Kessler's groovy footwork.

We got to Leeds O2 close to doors opening and got more-or-less straight in. First impressions were that Leeds O2 was a bit minging compared to Newcastle. You stuck to the floor as soon as you entered the building and you were nowhere near the bar or arena by then. By the time you reached those parts of the building the stickiness was almost superglue in strength and you stood still at your own peril. It at least explained the bag-search at the door - worried someone was trying to smuggle in cleaning products!

Other than that it was quite a nice building, internally the architecture, layout and lighting surpass Newcastle. We got seats in the second row of the balcony, which gave an excellent view, though I was slightly tempted by the standing that was available behind the side rows of seats. The fact that standing there for a few hours would probably mean I'd have to leave my shoes behind when I left persuaded me otherwise.

After almost and hour and a half of nothing the support act came on and the evening's entertainment finally began. Matthew Dear was someone I'd never heard of, let alone heard, so I didn't really know what to expect. What followed, therefore, was all the more surprising. I just sat and watched almost open-mouthed, the sound and stage presence that he generated being quite mesmerising. I particularly liked the trumpet (? - I'm no brass expert) that featured on many tracks. I donwloaded (legally, from iTunes) his album when I got home - it's good, but nowhere near as good as the live show, and I don't really notice the trumpet on it.

Matthew Dear and his trumpet player

So he came and went, and after a further (relatively) short interval Inperpol were finally on. The setlist was much the same as in Newcastle - the best tracks are the best tracks, so you can't change a set too much. The differences between the sets were that C'mere, Hands Away and Specialist replaced Length of Love, Not Even Jail and NYC. Good in some ways, especially as Specialist seemed to be the most "requested" song at both concerts, but bad in that Length Of Love is my favourite track and was omitted.

Paul Banks, Interpol

The view was indeed better and we got to see Kessler's footwork in all its glory, as well as being able to actually see the band's faces. All tracks were performed immaculately, though as always at these smaller venues, the vocals sometimes got a bit overpowered by the music. The bass was a lot less prominent on the balcony than it had been in Newcastle's mosh too - only to be expected I guess, due to the large difference in distance from the speakers. This totally changed the feel of the concert, and feel is the right word. The deep base resonated your whole body so you did indeed "feel" the concert when closer to the front, and it was that that had really grabbed me at Newcastle.

Paul Banks, Daniel Kessler & Sam Fogarino, Interpol

So this ranks as my second favourite concert of all time, after the Newcastle one, though if you take into account the much better support act then maybe it could be up there as equal first.

Guitar change for Mr Kessler... Must mean Slow Hands is on its way...

Setlist

1. Success
2. Say Hello To The Angels
3. C'mere
4. Hands Away
5. Barricade
6. Rest My Chemistry
7. Evil
8. Lights
9. Narc
10. Summer Well
11. Take You On A Cruise
12. Specialist
13. The Heinrich Maneuver
14. Memory Serves
15. Obstacle 1

Encore:

16. Untitled
17. The New
18. Slow Hands

Apparently Not Even Jail was also planned for the encore but time was against them.

Leeds and Leeds and Leeds!

We went to Leeds yesterday. The primary reason for going was to go to a concert, Interpol, in the evening. We got there early enough to have a little time, and dinner, in the city beforehand and were blessed in that it was a lovely sunny day.

I thought I'd sussed out the car parking well, well enough that the chosen car park was amongst the cheaper options and also very close to the concert venue, so not much of a walk back afterwards. Very convenient for getting onto the A64 too, our route home. What I hadn't managed to ascertain though was that the damned car park locks its gates at 9pm, a fact we didn't realise until after we'd parked. This led to us immediately moving to a different car park, but still cost us £2 for the pleasure.

After triple checking the closing time of car park plan B we finally headed into the city. The first thing that caught our eye was the lovely sunny decking of a pub, overlooking Merrion St. Gardens, so that was us sorted for the next 3/4 hour.

A Beautiful Cuthroat Porter

Merrion St. Gardens

Not long to go before dinner after that, so we had a quick wander around The Victoria Quarter, Leeds most picturesque area. The late afternoon sun streaming in through the stained glass roofs of the arcades made for a lovely way to go window shopping.

After a quick look around and successfully managing to avoid spending anything we headed off for dinner at PizzaExpress on Park Square. It's the first time we've been down that way and I was quite taken by some of the architecture down there, as well as with the square itself.

Dinner at PizzaExpress was faultless as always and also free as always (thank you Tesco). We were finished just in time to get to the O2 Academy right on doors opening time, so no hanging about and (thanks to a strange bit of stewarding) no standing in a long queue, as we were ushered straight to the "express" queue which was supposed to be for O2 customers only.

The concert was fabulous, the blog about it can be seen here.

Interpol

Getting out of Leeds afterwards was a nightmare, Traffic lights every 20 yards always seemed to be on red so progress was slow, but when it speeded up that just confused my sat nav as we were constantly past the junction it wanted me to go down before it had a chance to tell me. Its constant re-caculating of routes didn't help and we were permanently one step behind. Time to go back to basics and use eye and brain to find our way to a road that was at least heading the right way. Once on the M1 it was finally time to engage cruise, disengage brain and waft back home in the minimal amount of traffic that uses the motorway after midnight.

Great Day Out In Whitby

On the spur of the moment, it being unexpectedly sunny, we went to Whitby for the day. Rather than head straight into Whitby we decided to head for Sandsend first and drive along the coast from there. We parked in the car park there at the bottom of Lythe Bank (extortionate fees) and I noticed there were some steps up out of it onto the moor behind. Wife told me they used to go that way as kids, but that she hadn't been for years. We decided to take a look.

What a "discovery", a beautiful walkway along what used to be the railway ends at the point where the railway vanishes into a blocked-off tunnel. How had I not known about this before?

The path continues up and over the hill that the tunnel vanishes into so we followed it a little further, on to a beautiful stretch of clifftop before turning back. Strangely I saw no sign of where the tunnel emerges at the other end. Perhaps it no longer does.

This short section from the car park to the point we turned back was about a mile and a half each way and took in some lovely scenery. To our right was the sea and to our left what appears to be former quarries, now turned into a nature reserve/country park.

There was even a track down to the base of the cliffs to a small pebbly beach - somewhere to take a look at next time we come when we're both wearing more appropriate footwear.

Back at the car park we were feeling peckish and decided to find somewhere for a snack. We ended up at Woodlands Eat, a nice little bistro/cafe bar. The sunshine had brought out the crowds and we got just about the last two seats left, but those crowds had also snaffled almost all the cakes and scones. We were left a little bit with Hobson's choice - Pannetone and Ginger Parkin, but they certainly didn't disappoint us. Both were delicious, the Pannetone being easily the nicest I've ever had. I could have gone back and scoffed the lot. The ambiance, music and full menu looked good enough for us to want to go back there for a proper meal sometime, most likely in summer, when we'll also take stouter footwear and do a longer hike along that old railway trail.

Fully sated (for now) we headed into Whitby and had a wander round, discovering some parts of town that we'd never seen before despite having been going there for over 30 years! It wasn't long before we were feeling hungry again though, and remembered a place I'd seen on earlier visits and had always wanted to try - Humble Pie 'n' Mash. 

This cafe serves just one thing - the thing it's named after. Pie, mash, peas and gravy is the only thing on the menu (apart from the kid's choices), but there is a large and varied selection of pies on offer. We plumped for one each of the two vegetarian options - Homity for me, roast veg & goat's cheese for wife. Everything was spot on, the pies delicious, the mash just how we like it, nice "real" peas (wife has an aversion to mushy) and lovely gravy. Even the Yorkshire Tea came in a great big mug - lovely. Good prices too, at just £4.95 for the pie meals.

Deserts looked too good to miss too, so we didn't! The Jam Roly Poly was ace, just how we like it with a nice crisp baked crust and a soft gooey interior with plenty of Jam. We could have gone around the whole desert menu, each one sounded delicious (and each one was an old childhood favourite - I was especially tempted by the rice pudding).

After leaving there we had another wander around the shops, up past the Kipper smoke house, down to the pier and then back into town and up to the car park. It had been an absolutely fabulous day and one that filled us with enthusiasm for just how lovely England, and especially Yorkshire, can be on a nice day. You tend to forget after day upon day of gloom and rain.

And Then There Was Beer...

I do love a good beer festival, and here in Darlo we're blessed with two each year. March is the date for The Spring Thing, a beer & folk music event running for four days. We usually go on the Thursday, the first day, when beer is at its freshest and most plentiful - who wants Sunday's left over dregs?

It's always a bit of a challenge for me to choose a handful of beers to try from the 50+ on offer, so I usually go for the styles that I like best - very dark beers (stouts & porters) and very strong beers. If there's a very strong, very dark beer then all the better.

Things didn't start as planned though - this beer caught my eye as soon as I went up to the bar, and being a lover of proper Belgian Kriek I thought I'd give this young pretender from Yorkshire a go. I thought it best to try it early too, before my palate was tainted by too much bitterness from the other beers ahead.

Saltaire Cheeky Kriek, 4%, 7/10

I gave it 7/10, a mark that was skewed by the fact that it was the first beer and I had no idea how good or bad the following ones would be - a tough call to give your first drink too high or too low a score. On reflection by the end of the evening, I'd got it spot on. It was very much like a traditional British bitter but with cherry aromas and a subtle cherry flavour hidden behind the bitterness. It was nothing at all like its Belgian equivalents, and wouldn't stand up to any sort of comparison to them in a side by side tasting. On its own merits though, it was a decent enough drink.

Next up 4 Kings, the strongest ale on show and also (consequently?) the most expensive. This didn't disappoint, being smooth and full of flavour and tasting very much like a much stronger barley wine. Could I risk a 10/10? Best go for a 9 just to save space for anything potentially better.

Battledown 4 Kings, 7.2%, 9/10

After that some Inn Stable from the Heart Of Wales brewery. Disappointingly cloudy in appearance, it at least didn't taste spoiled, certainly no hint of being tainted by yeast. It didn't taste great though, lacking the depth of character of the 4 Kings despite being only marginally weaker. 6/10 for that then.

Heart Of Wales Inn Stable, 6.8%, 6/10

As always I'd decided to go for the pint glass and drink halves. This gets you a good deal more beer than using a half glass as no one fills it too carefully.

When is a half not a half?

Next up Ulverston Bad Medicine, one of the darkest beer I was to have tonight and (possibly because of that) the best. It was absolutely spot on, not too heavy or cloying and with just the right amount of bitterness. Its own write-up was spot on - "A surprisingly light winter beer, strong but easy to drink". 10/10, no doubt about it.

 Ulverston Bad Medicine, 6.3%, 10/10

Things could only go downhill after that I suppose, and so they did, progressively so. Starting with the Wall's Dark Horse, marketed as a stout but not having enough body, being more of a porter to me. Still, I like a good porter, but unfortunately this wasn't one. It wasn't too bad though, so 6/10.

Wall's Dark Horse Stout, 4.4%, 6/10

So on to Just A Minute "Darkest Moment", a "full blown black stout with chocolate & coffee aroma lasting a slight liquorice finish". If they'd just written "tastes foul" they'd have been nearer the truth. I was reluctant to give it too low a mark as there were still futher beers to go, so 4/10 it was.

Just A Minute Darkest Moment, 4.3%, 4/10

Then on to Special K, had to try that as one of the lads I was with's wife is called Kay... Wish I hadn't, it was even worse than the Darkest Moment, though possibly that was because I'd switched to a light ale after all the dark. Whatever, it was hard to finish it off it tasted so bad to me. Just 3/10 for that one then.

Cleveland Special K, 5%, 3/10

Its only saving grace was that it was at least 3 times as good as the appalling Burnside Black Katz (no photo), something I had to try as I have a black cat and Sunderland AFC are called The Black Cats. This not only smelled foul, it tasted as bad as it smelled. Surely it was off and shouldn't have been up for sale? More like black katz pee. 1/10.

I think I had more poor beers here than at any other Darlo beer festival. Bad choices on my part, or bad choices on the part of the organisers? Who knows. No complaints though, it was still a cracking night out, good conversation, good atmosphere and even bad beer is better than no beer!

Muddybums + 1