INTERPOL @ ROADRUNNER 12/1
Photography by Gwyneth Moe
Review by Jaya Kohol
As I walked to Roadrunner in the frigid cold, I watched the billows of warm breath leave my nose into the dark air. Despite my freezing hands, I knew getting to see Interpol would make my journey worth it. As a long-time fan of the post-punk revival band, I had been itching to see them play live. I was delighted to see that the band was playing select tour dates to play their sophomore album “Antics” in full in honor of its 20th anniversary. The band set off to play two dates in Boston – just my luck.
Originally from New York City, the band was formed in 1997 by Greg Drudy and Daniel Kessler, who met at New York University. They soon recruited Paul Banks as well as Carlos Dengler and released their first EP. In 2000, Drudy left the band to pursue other work while the rest of the band went on to sign with Matador Records and release their seminal full-length album “Turn On the Bright Lights” in 2002. The band pulled obvious inspiration from other critically acclaimed post-punk and indie bands such as Joy Division and The Smiths. The album was chock full of punchy bass lines and guitar-driven melodies, giving the band a sound akin to indie contemporary counterparts such as The Strokes or Arcade Fire. Only two years later, the band would go on to release their second album, “Antics,” which breached the UK Top 40 charts with songs such as “C’mere” and “Evil.” These two albums propelled the band into mainstream success across an 18-month tour and through openings for the likes of The Cure and U2.
In the following years, Interpol took years off here and there to recuperate from their consistent touring and album writing. Since their second album, “Antics,” the band has gone on to release five more albums, with the latest titled “The Other Side of Make-Believe” released in 2022. The band has remained a staple of the New York indie and alternative rock scene, with their debut album becoming a cult classic amongst a wide audience of music listeners.
As the band began to take the stage, a massive white sheet was hoisted up in front of them, casting big red and black shadows from the backlit stage. The set began with the intro synthetic organ sounds of “Next Exit,” the opening song from “Antics.” Frontman Banks’ voice filled the concert hall with a nasally, almost whining vocal tone, and the crowd instantly began to sing along. I noticed that instead of any large backdrops on the stage, there were three massive light projectors standing upright, casting white and red streams of light through the sheet and out into the audience. As the bass of the next song, “Evil,” began, the sheet dropped suddenly, and the crowd erupted into cheers.
The band didn’t hesitate to jump from song to song without any words to the audience, instead letting the music of the album flow from one track to the next. Frontman Banks donned a black leather jacket and sunglasses, a figurehead of the cool and aloof NYC style of the band as a whole. I was ecstatic as the band played “Slow Hands,” one of the most upbeat and rhythm-heavy songs on the album as a whole. The crowd sang along with fervor to the lyrics, chanting the chorus, “We spies, we slow hands, put the weights around yourself.” As the band played on, the room was filled with enchanting and cascading lights. Deep blues, purples, and reds colored the stage, giving the whole performance a dream-like quality and lulling the audience into a mysterious, weightless haze of music. As the songs switched from fast-paced dance tracks to more subdued songs, the lights followed suit, switching from bright strobes to a dazzle of constellation-like disco effects that cascaded above the audience into the mezzanine.
The band soon concluded their playthrough of the album and took a moment off stage before coming back on to play a set of songs from the rest of their discography. They made sure to play all of their hits, including by far their most popular song, “Obstacle 1,” off of their debut album. As the second set began to come to a close, Banks thanked the audience for their energy, as well as thanked the rest of his band members for a wonderful performance. Interpol concluded their two-part show with a brief encore, ending the night with the fan-favorite song “PDA.” Despite the cold, I began the walk home humming along happily to the final song. I smiled to myself as a car passed by alongside me, from which I could hear the bass of “Slow Hands” echoing out into the night.