By Bruno Bridger, Arts Editor
In early interviews, Interpol frontman Paul Banks alluded to his failure to emulate the singular voices of his childhood heroes, Kurt Cobain and Frank Black. It's true that Bank's voice is far different to the defining voices of American Indie Rock and Grunge, but that's not to say that it isn't equally singular.
Banks doesn't employ a signature squeal or drawl. Instead he is magpie-like, borrowing and resurrecting sounds from the early Gothic Post-Punk of the Chameleons and the confessional starkness of Leonard Cohen. In a sense, despite Interpol being an American outfit, Bank's musical approach has a certain trans-atlanticism that sets him apart from his college-rock forefathers.
Perhaps this can be attributed to Bank's upbringing, born in Clacton-On Sea to an English father, and a childhood spent in Mexico City and the Midwest. Either way, his voice, an almost alien baritone, amidst a sea of Velvets imitators within the garage rock revival of the early oughts, allowed Interpol to carve out a prominent niche in the industry.
Nothing quite sums up the singularity of Interpol as a band more than their sophomore effort Antics. The task of following up their critically lauded debut, Turn on the Bright Lights at the time must have felt insurmountable. Fellow NYC explosion act The Strokes had seemingly failed to build on their initial success, with their sophomore effort Room on Fire panned by critics.
While it has now reached a cult-like status, at the time it must have seemed that while offering the music world an alternative to the death of grunge, the excitement of the garage-rock revival dwindled when it appeared that the bands responsible for the movement were out of ideas.
It is this context that makes Antics such a fascinating album to see live and in full, 20 years after its release. Instead of providing a re-hashing of the sounds and moods of their debut effort, Interpol developed their philosophy with grace.
While the songs on their debut read as an almost elegiac, devotional songbook to its influences, Antics was the cathedral built to house them. Indeed, 'Near Exit', the song that starts off the album, and the gig, is one that begins with a heavenly organ, filling the otherwise empty space of the albums first moments.
The band stay true to the track list, seamlessly following up with fan-favourite 'Evil'. At once the large veil obscuring the musicians is dropped, revealing Banks and Co. bathed in red and predictably in a sharp, sartorial dress-code. After rifling through all of the album in under an hour, they take to the stage again to play some cult-classics and the big hits from across their discography.
They give a particularly impassioned performance of my personal favourite 'NYC' , which sends the crowd into a frenzy, as the songs strained call to 'turn on the bright lights' is in turn reciprocated by the venue staff. The crowd is revealed under the over-heads as a sweaty-mass of die-hards, old and new, linked arm in arm as the almost 2 hour set reaches its conclusion.
If there is one takeaway from witnessing what is now a 20 year old album played live, then it is the cross-generational appeal of Interpol's discography. Rather than being relegated to the dustbin of history, 'Antics' still sounds as vital as it ever did.
Featured Image: Benji ChapmanWhat is your favourite song from Antics?
