Sunday, September 29th, 2002

Turn On The Bright Lights

Having returned from Interpol’s Toronto debut, I can offer the following observations:

1) DAMN they are tight! The bass and drums lock in so seamlessly I couldn’t tell where the bass guitar ended and the bass drum began. Very impressive – the production on the album tends to wash out the rhythm section some, but live? It’s like getting kicked in the chest repeatedly. In a good way..

2) It took Paul Banks a couple songs to get his voice warmed up – initially he couldn’t come close to nailing his falsetto and the vocals were somewhat thin overall. By mid-set however, he had some serious oomph behind him and sounded great.

3) Mix was very good, but overall a little loud. Guitars and vocals were distorted coming through the PA.

4) They use a lot of Boss pedals. Guitars were Rickenbacker 360 (fireglo) and a Les Paul Deluxe (goldtop with mini buckers) both through Twin Reverbs (one blackface, probably RI, one silverface).

5) Song arrangements were very close to the album – maybe a little more jamming in places, but hardly reiventing the material. The band was chattier than past show reviews had led me to expect. Mayhap they were a little surprised (pleasantly so) by the enthusiastic response of the Toronto punters.

6) A very packed and satisfied crowd has gone home from the Horseshoe tonight. Interpol will be back next year sometime, but the snob in me already knows that show won’t be as good as this one was.

On a sort-of related note, MY FEET AND LEGS ARE KILLING ME. I expect a grand muscle spasm sometime this evening. It will be spectacular.

np – the ringing in my ears.

By : Frank Yang at 2:27 am
Category: Uncategorized
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  1. 8/12/10 2:29 pm

     Interpol at The Kool Haus in Toronto | MP3 Music at MixBurner says:

    […] Turn On The Bright Lights, an infatuation cemented by a stellar show at the Horseshoe way back in September 2002. The bloom started coming off the rose not long after, though, with a lacklustre show at the Kool […]

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