Interpol
  • josh bis
  • Interpol

Although it's only been four years since their last album, it feels like Interpol had been away forever, perhaps because nothing since Turn On The Bright Lights has eclipsed their debut in terms of irrevocably embedding evocative/nonsensical lyrics and aspirationally/gloomy post-punk melodies in my brain. I'd only seen them on festival stages and at places like the WaMu auditorium; so last night's show felt like opening time capsule, except situated in the much more pleasant surroundings of the Paramount's gilded auditorium. The audience was mostly people who, like me, probably "felt really old" when the debut album celebrated its tenth birthday a couple years ago. Fewer people than you'd expect dressed up in well-fitting suits to evoke the band's typical costumes.

For a setlist, the band interspersed several tracks from El Pintor, which Grantland's Steven Hyden favorably described as a return to their origins, sounding "like the Cure on cruise control while high on Percocet and lounging in the back of a luxury sedan". I can't do better than that, but perhaps because the videos playing behind the band during the new songs were typically scenes of the natural world, they seemed at least to be mining a different sort of angst, maybe a little more grown-up and less concerned with city life. The strategic placement of the new songs among some (but, not all) old favorites made the show both a nostalgia trip as well as a solid introduction to an album that I haven't yet fully digested.

More pictures from the show, including a setlist and openers Rey Pila, after the jump.

turn on the bright lights. please. for the photographers.
  • Interpol's light design alternated between re-creating the dark look and feel of the album cover from Turn On the Bright Lights and showing videos of natural scenes like mountains, waves and eyeballs; line drawings of spinning cities; or computer renderings that recalled Luc Besson's swing at the 2001 fantasia sequence from the end of Lucy.

disclosure: an aesthetically distracting microphone was removed from this image using content-aware fill in photoshop
  • Aside from backup vocals and showy guitars, Daniel Kessler is also responsible for Interpol's fanciest footwork. A dance battle between him and Vampire Weekend bassist Chris Baio would be the stuff of legends.

Paul Banks
  • Paul Banks, adding some fedora flair to the time-tested Interpol suiting.

Interpol
  • Kessler, at the edge of the stage for some guitar heroics.

Interpols setlist
  • Interpol's setlist: a healthy mix of songs from their new album, El Pintor, nestled among most of the greatest hits. The absence of "Obstacle 1" and "Leif Erikson" was disappointing, but not a dealbreaker.

Rey Pila
Rey Pila
  • Rey Pila, from Mexico City, are both psyched and stoked to be visiting Seattle for the first time. Someone in the front row told the photographers to expect something in the style of Roxy Music, which wasn't entirely misguided.

Rey Pila
  • Rey Pila, self-proclaimed Seahawks fans, hung out by the merch table after the show even though their new album doesn't come out until 2015.