Interpol at Rebel - Concert Photos

New York City post-punk band Interpol is certainly among my favourite bands and their music holds a special place in my library. Sadly, they've always been missing from my live photo portfolio. All that changed in September, when I caught their live show at Toronto's Rebel as they toured to support the release of their latest album Marauder.

I only stuck around for their first three songs, unfortunately, since I'd already committed to be up at The Horseshoe for the second night of four in The Hold Steady's Constructive Summer series. Fortunately, they hit up some great tunes like "Pioneer to the Falls" and "All the Rage Back Home" plus new tune "If You Really Love Nothing", so I feel like I got a pretty good, if all too brief, show.

Their setlist has a very cool cross section of Interpol tunes that makes me wish I could have been in two places at once. And that encore! Next time.

And don't forget to check out my shots of opening act Sunflower Bean, who put on a killer set.

Here are some of my favourites from the band's setlist.

"Pioneer to the Falls"

"All the Rage Back Home"

"If You Really Love Nothing"

"Mammoth"

"NYC"

"The Rover"

"Rest My Chemistry"

"Lights"

"Evil"

"Obstacle 1"

Interpol at Field Trip 2014

Interpol is an amazing band, and one of my favourites. I also got in to Paul Bank's solo album Banks and his Julian Plenti is Skyscraper album. "Games for Days" is one of the best songs, ever. They were one of the bands that made me most excited to go to Field Trip and they were a great closer for the beautiful first day.

However, they've suffered an affliction that many bands with incredibly revered first albums suffer from in that everything they ever release is compared to that brilliant first release. Don't get me wrong, Turn on the Bright Lights is an amazing album. But so is Antics. And so is, dare I say it, Our Love to Admire. Their 2010 eponymous album had growing potential but I didn't fertilize. So it goes. Hopefully, El Pintor will live up to fans' expectations when it comes out September 9.

The band seems to know this. Worshippers of Interpol's first two albums got a set was heavily weighted towards them. Fully 12 of the 16 songs they played were from Turn on the Bright Lights and Antics. Their show was tight and moderately blinding. Their monochrome light show took full advantage of the dark night but would have brought hell to the photographers in the pit. Since I was shooting with my iPhone, I wasn't to concerned about awesome looking pictures, so I'm not disappointed.

Here are my favourite tunes they played, following the set order:

"Evil" from 2004's Antics

"C'mere" from Antics

"NYC" from 2002's Turn On The Bright Lights

"Narc" from Antics

"PDA" from Turn On The Bright Lights

and set closer, the awesome "Slow Hands" from Antics

interspersed with new songs like "My Desire", "Anywhere" and "All the Rage Back Home" from the forthcoming album El Pintor.

The encore started off with "Lights" from 2010's Interpol

They closed down the night with the brilliant "Obstacle 1" from Turn On The Bright Lights

Now, I know that Our Love To Admire wasn't their most acclaimed album, but I really liked it, and I'm surprised it was completely shut out from this show. Oh well, maybe next time.

I took pics at Field Trip with my iPhone. Hopefully next year, I'll be in the photo pit with my better gear.

Favourites: Five-Star Songs

What do these songs have in common? They're all awesome!

"Acquiesce" by Oasis


The Long Blondes "Giddy Stratospheres"


Interpol "Slow Hands"


Interpol "Obstacle 1"


Klaxons "Golden Skans"

My 25 favourite tracks of NME's 100 best tracks of the '00s

NME posted their 100 Best Tracks Of The ’00s.  I picked out my favourite 25.  It was tough.  Here they are.

100 Maxïmo Park – “Apply Some Pressure”


99 Flaming Lips – “Do You Realize”


95 The Killers – “These Things That I’ve Done”


93 The Big Pink – “Dominos”


79 Muse – “Plug In Baby”


76 Gnarls Barkley – “Crazy”


66 Friendly Fires – “Paris”


59 Interpol – “Evil”


55 The xx – “Islands”


50 Kasabian – “Empire”


47 Britney Spears – “Toxic”


46 Lily Allen – “Smile”


42 Gossip – “Standing In The Way Of Control”


41 The Killers – “Mr. Brightside”


31 Bloc Party – “Banquet”


30 Franz Ferdinand – “Take Me Out”


28 Arctic Monkeys – “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor”


24 Doves – “There Goes The Fear”


23 Muse – “Knights Of Cydonia”


22 The Strokes – “Last Nite”


17 Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Maps”


10 Arctic Monkeys – “A Certain Romance”


07 Klaxons – “Golden Skans”


05 Outkast – “Hey Ya!”


02 MGMT – “Time To Pretend”

Patience, young Jedi, one day you will love these songs

I wrote before about how I'm sometimes late to the party, either in hearing about an artist entirely, or in hearing a band, rejecting them and then re-discovering them later. Now that I know this about myself, I will often give a band that's hyped a second or even a third chance.

Now sometimes this just doesn't work out and I never really see the brilliance in a band that everyone else falls head over heels in love with. Like Arcade Fire. They're okay, but I don't see them as the most brilliant artist to come along in the last 20 years.

And sometimes I hear a band and I think, they have a cool sound, but the songs aren't grabbing me. And after a number of listens, the brilliance starts to show through. This is what happened to me in a big way with The National and Interpol. They have taught me that patience is a virtue, and reminded me of the fact that songs don't always show their brilliance with one listen. Sometimes songs take a while to show you their wonder. Their melodies unravel, layered musical parts show their beauty and lyrics reveal their imagery and meaning.

Here's a video from The National for "Conversation 16". I had previously posted a clip of them doing this song on Letterman. I love the song. And I really like the show Mad Men. Great TV show. And this video has the guy who plays Roger Sterling in it. So why do I hate this video? Who knows. Maybe it's brilliance will shine through after a number of listens.



I haven't been shy about my love of the song "Games for Days" from Paul Bank's solo project Julian Plenti. "This is how we learn."

Scarlett, Spinnerette, Stereophonics and Other Cool Stuff!

I read a number of RSS feeds on my Blackberry on my way to work every day. I save the one's I want to follow up on, either because they have some content I want to see or hear that doesn't come through on the Blackberry, or the feed is truncated and I want to read the rest of the article (I actively dislike it when feeds are truncated). Here are a few of the articles or posts I found interesting over the last while.

Scarlett Johansson is singing again. While the few songs I heard from her Tom Waits cover album didn't grab me, this new song with Scarlett and Pete Yorn sounds quite good. Spin has posted the video and has a brief article here.



Stereophonics are coming out with a new album called Keep Calm and Carry On. I've never been super into them, but I seem to have a lot of their music in my collection. I think that if I just spent some more time with their albums, they could really become a favourite. Guardian has an article on their pending release and about Ronseal records in general. Ronseal records are those albums that let the listener what they are via the album title.

NPR.org has a cool article on the Posies and how bands make money these days. Interesting that they never pocketed any money from their major-label albums. It's no wonder that the record business is in the tank and the music business seems to be going strong. When will those record company's realize that they are dinosaurs and that they're extinct?

Julian Plenti, also known as Paul Banks from Interpol, has released an album called Julian Plenti Is... Skyscraper. I really like Interpol and after giving this album a spin, I give it a thumbs up. It is available from emusic.

Spinnerette were on Letterman, sounding decidedly less keyboardy and poppy than they do on their latest, self-titled album.

More to come!