Interpol @ the Forum, 10.23.07

The following concert review was penned by BBBD contributor, Bryan Hood. After the jump are some additional notes by the author.
I remember asking my friend Rhett if he’d be buying Interpol’s latest album, Our Love to Admire. Without hesitation he said no. I pushed on reminding him that he loved Interpol’s Turn On the Bright Lights, and thought that Antics was a satisfactory (if not good) follow up. “I don’t know,” he said, “I just feel like they’re one of those bands that you only really need one album of. They’ve got a good sound, but it’s a sound that doesn’t change.”

I bought Our Love to Admire shortly after it came out. I enjoyed it a great deal, but Rhett was right. As good as Interpol’s may be, you know what you’re getting when you listen to (or in this case go to see) Interpol. Tuesday’s show at the building Magic made magical (a.k.a the Forum) did nothing to persuade me otherwise. The band played a good mixture of new stuff and the old standards, getting great crowd reaction all the while. Each song managed to loudly recreate the atmosphere and tension you’d expect of Interpol. But that was the problem; there was no element of surprise, the whole set was just Interpol by numbers. The band was good, but you couldn’t help but feel that what you were watching up on stage wasn’t a band so much as it was a group of professionals. There were some moments of inspiration though, times when one could really appreciate Interpol. These moments mainly came during songs from Turn On the Bright Lights. On songs like “Say Hello to the Angels,” “Stella was a Diver,” and the always amazing “PDA,” it was apparent that Interpol were capable of so much more, that even while producing glacial sounding music they could still show some semblance of passion.

I realize that this might sound like a very negative review, but really it isn’t. I got to see a very technically proficient band, perform some of my favorite songs of the last few years. But sometimes, you just want a little bit more. It’s not always because you’re hungry for more, sometimes you just know you could be seeing better.

Interpol - Stella Was A Diver and She's Always Down
Nik would like to add here that "Stella Was A Diver ... " is his favorite Interpol song. Ever.
A few notes that I couldn’t really figure out how to fit into the rest of the review:

-- Forget Paul Banks and Carlos D, Daniel Kessler and Sam Fogarino are the real stars.

-- The crowd was easily the most diverse one I’ve been in. People of all walks of life were there, Tibetan monks and Cosmonauts included. Also those who worship the night and fans of the Eagles.

-- Getting into the Forum was a fucking chore. I was really looking forward to catching Liars’ opening set, but after what spending like an hour crammed into a line with a thousand other angry people, I was too late.