The Interpol show last night had a curious set-up last night: In addition to the usual sound-board at right in the Commodore, it appears that Interpol required their own soundboard, which was set up at the back of the dance-floor.
There was additional sound/lights crew on the stage as well, which seemed to me to be an awful lot of technicians for one band.
The show itself was … good. Not fantastic, not terrible, just kind of standard.
See, here’s the thing.
Interpol is such a good band, and they play so well, it was a great show.
But I could probably just have stayed home and listened to the tracks on CD - there was no acknowledgment of a live performance by them, apart from a couple of brief hellos and thank yous.
No deviation from the song.
No obvious gaffes, no real showmanship (notable exception: the bassist, who looks like he belonged in Deadwood, was a total rock god with his axe, holding it aloft as he plucked the rhythm).
But at the same time, I totally enjoyed it. I suppose it was a little like attending a good, but not mind-blowing symphony.
The music was excellent, the craft was evident, but there was nothing to take it to the next level that we all want to experience - there was no “shared moment” last night.