New York's Interpol are playing at Leeds Beckett University tonight to a sell-out crowd.
It's been a while since I've been to this venue and it's smaller than I remember, possibly too small for the post punk band, but they seem to favour the smaller venues.
First up though, was the Kent punk duo, Slaves. I have been wanting to see this lot for a while and they didn't disappoint. Issac Holman took to his stand-up drum kit and smashed out a heavy beat, while Laurie Vincent played the gruff punk riffs on the guitar, starting up with 'White Knuckle Ride' from their excellent 2013 sugar coated album 'Bitter Truth'.
They ripped through their set with Vincent bouncing around the stage, stopping to introduce themselves and to be greeted by a heckler somewhere in the crowd which they had a bit of fun with. They have an old school punk vibe about them, almost pistols like, especially Holman"s vocals and presence, which is very John Lydon. They came to their penultimate song, when the heckler started up again shouting "Play yer best song", to which Vincent replied "All ready done it, mate" then went into 'The Hunter' their latest single and one of their best songs to date, in my opinion They finished off a cracking set with a cracking song, 'Hey'. Hopefully,a new album will follow from this lot really soon.
After a short set change, on came Interpol bathed in blood red lighting setting the mood of the gig. They started with 'Say Hello to the Angels' from their fifth album, 'El Pintor', which is their fist since bassist Carlos Dengler left in 2010. Singer/guitarist Paul Bank, new bass player Brad Truax, guitarist Daniel Kessler and drummer Sam Fogarino sounded polished and powerful as they eased through the first song.
The heckler was off again, and I didn't catch what was shouted, but he got no reaction from Banks and band, all bar a smile as they coolly moving onto the next song 'Anywhere'. Kessler jumped and skipped round the stage like a cat with a flea up its backside, while Banks melodramatic vocals were as good as ever.
A lot of people are going to be missing ex bassist Denglar but I though Truax did good and held his own. They still have shades of 80s post punk such as Joy division, and they played alot from their new album, as well as a few older tracks thrown in which pleased the crowd. They finished a great set with an encore of 'All The Rage Back Home', 'NYC' and 'PDA'.
Set list Interpol:
Say Hello to the Angels
Anywhere
My Blue Supreme
Evil
The New
My Desire
Rest My Chemistry
Everything Is Wrong
Lights
Breaker 1
Pioneer to the Falls
Narc
Not Even Jail
Slow Hands
Encore:
All the Rage Back Home
NYC
PDA
Set List Slaves:
White Knuckle ride
Why would you?
Sockets
Live like an animal
Feed the manta ray
Sugar coated bitter truth
Wheres your car Debbie
The Hunter
Hey
FUTURE GIGS
sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.