Interpol vocalist Paul Banks

NYC's Interpol in 2002 put forth one of the great debut albums of indie rock. It was timeless, precise, and not a right note was missed. It was a perfect debut. But, in reality, a band's greatness lies in their live acts. You can be a great band on record with the help of studio wizardry and sly overdubs, but you are only really great when your laid bare in front of all your fans. A moment when you have no other choice but to deliver the goods. Personally, I felt that Interpol would either come off bland and too by-the-numbers, come off as tinny garage-clatter, or that they would quite simply reward us with a spellbinding performance.

I weighed these options as I stood waiting for the show to start. Then I waited some more. And some more. Ok, so I obviously waited a long time, but after a while the roadies did their sound checks etc. and then the opening act The Raveonettes appeared. Having not thought much about their recent record Whip It On I wasn't expecting much more than Jesus & Mary Chain rip-offs as I waited for the main event. But The Raveonettes, for all thier recorded faults, actually put on a blistering live set which included old songs and new. "Attack Of The Ghostriders" sounded ten times more distorted and rockin' than on the record and the sets closer "Beat City" almost leaves you panting for more.

	Interpol bassist Carlos D

But Interpol is what the show is really about. To put it short, Interpol exceeded all expectations. Never could I have forseen that they would be able to translate the intensity and emotion of the record in a live setting, but they did. Every guitar chord, every bassline and every vocal filled the room with the same earphoria as would the record and then some. They opened with the spacey "Untitled" which lulled the crowd into the more goth rock territory of "PDA" and "Obstacle 2" . "Stella Was A Diver And She Was Always Down" was as heart-wrenching as it was blistering as Paul Banks' emotive vocals tore through the speakers. Songs like "Obstacle 1" were droned out in all their rain-drenched glory and vocalist Paul Banks proved that there is no studio Svengali behind his gift as he was clearly the star of the show. His vocal range was amazing on "NYC" as he crooned out the chorus "It's up to me now to turn on the bright lights" with a jawdropping resonance. After completely blowing away the audience they returned for an encore of "The New" that basically left one in awe. You see for all Interpol's Joy Division nods they are in fact a great band in studio and out. Joy Division's recorded live acts are considered close to atrocious but Interpol, on the other hand, lives up to their hype. Tight, precise, and amazing. I left the concert and walked into the humid, rainy night with the feeling that I saw a band on the verge of greatness. Because Interpol are truly a great band and the fact that the whole night I never once thought of them as the embarassing term garage-rock says a lot. They have shed their tag and proved to be far more than the sum of their garage-rock contemporaries.