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Review: 'Interpol / Slaves'
'Leeds Beckett University, 15th February 2015'   


-  Genre: 'Indie'

Our Rating:
Interpol are one of those bands who inspire a higher level of devotion in their fans. That isn’t to say they aren’t divisive. People don’t just ‘like’ Interpol. But those that are into them are really into them. So it’s no surprise that when doors open at 7, there’s a queue around the block, and the front rows are packed out long before the show gets going. They reward those fans by playing a different set each night, and by always springing a few surprises from the back catalogue.

The first surprise of the night, however, is Slaves. On the face of things, Slaves are an odd choice of support for the ponderous post-punk New York act. A couple of Essex rude boys with a drummer who stands and hammers a floor tom and snare while yelling agit-prop slogans, they’re a powerhouse of punk racket who call to mind The Membranes and The Ruts. Their full-throttle sonic aggression is matched only by their good humour between songs. ‘Play your best song!’ someone heckles. ‘We’ve already done it,’ comes the reply from the stage. So an odd choice perhaps, but a good one: they’re lively, brash, loud and entertaining. And nothing like Interpol. Contrast is important.

This may explain the choice of music between acts: having been played an hour and a half of dub reggae before Slaves’ set, we’re treated to the first half hour of Ministry’s ‘Filth Pig’ while the stage is reset.

When Interpol do take to the stage at 9:30, they do so to rapturous applause and launch immediately into ‘Say Hello to the Angels’, which is followed immediately by ‘Anywhere’. Oh yes, and they have a new album to promote. It also happens to be their strongest release in some time, and the band seem much more energised than the last time I caught them in Leeds in March 2011. The smaller venue may help in terms of the show having a warmer atmosphere, too, and seeing them in such an intimate setting is a buzz that clearly crackles both ways as the audience are noticeably more exuberant. So the run of new songs continues with ‘Blue Supreme’, which has a tangible sense of yearning and failure that contrasts with the fulsome delivery.

It’s telling that after each of the new tracks, Paul Banks unassumingly tells us the song’s title. It’s quietly charming as if he genuinely expects we haven’t all heard and memorised the new album in the five months since its release. ‘My Desire’ soars, while ‘Breaker 1’ bursts with energy and ‘Everything is Wrong’ is spot on in every way.

Following a muscular-sounding ‘Evil’, ‘The New’ is brilliantly tense, Meanwhile, ‘Lights’, the sole cut lifted from their previous album, builds from its tentative opening to a surging rush, and it’s apparent during the set – not least of all here as the song steps up and up – just how great Sam Fogarino’s contribution to the band’s dynamic is.

‘Pioneer to the Falls’ and ‘Rest My Chemistry’ are the only tracks representing ‘Our Love to Admire’, with the latter providing the mid-set breather, but of course everyone has their favourite album tracks, and ‘Take You on a Cruise’ happens to be one of mine from ‘Antics’. It’s a journey as much as a song, beginning in one place and concluding in entirely another, and they convey its meandering dreaminess with a sensitivity that’s truly beautiful. That they follow it with ‘Not Even Jail’ is only a double bonus. No set would be complete without ‘Slow Hands’, they really attack it tonight, and it makes for an exhilarating close to the main set.

Encore opener ‘All the Rage Back Home’ does suffer from the flatness that Interpol are occasionally guilty of, but no-one’s going to complain: part of their appeal as a live act is the fact they are fallible, human: they sound live, they hit the occasional bum note (arguably, Daniel Kessler would miss fewer notes if he wasn’t so busy posing), and the experience is not the same as sitting at home with the album. I’d take that over the sterility of many big-name acts any day. They take it to the curfew with a crunchy version of ‘Stella Was a Diver and She was Always Down’.

A crowd-pleasing set that left the crowd pleased coupled with an assured performance and a few pleasant surprises confirms they’re back at the top of their game.
  author: Christopher Nosnibor

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Interpol / Slaves - Leeds Beckett University, 15th February 2015