Photo credit: CJ Foeckler
After rocketing to popular stardom and critical acclaim with their 2002 debut album Turn on the Bright Lights and its equally strong 2004 follow up Antics, which spawned their highest charting single, “Evil,” New York City’s Interpol discovered the hard way how a couple of departures and missteps can transform you from everyone’s favorite buzz band to just another run-of-the-mill rock group. The funny thing about the fickle affections of the listening public, however, is that sometimes it can be won back just as quickly as it’s lost, so while their previous two efforts failed to gain much traction, the new El Pintor, a noticeable return to form, has thrust the band back into center stage, something the diehard fans who crammed into the Pabst Theater for Saturday’s sold-out show couldn’t be happier about.
There was quite a bit of excitement coursing through the crowd, and a generous amount of that goodwill rubbed off on the opening act, Gainesville, Fla., outfit Hundred Waters, whose gauzy electro-acoustic pop found favor with the already packed house, although the fact that they brought along their own elaborate light show certainly helped capture the audience’s undivided attention. Musically speaking, the group’s sweeping arrangements and fragile vocals owe a rather marked debt to Portishead, especially on tracks like the delicate “Broken Blue” from their sophomore effort The Moon Rang Like a Bell, released via Skrillex’s OWSLA imprint earlier this year, but they’re at their best whenever all the atmospherics coalesce into something more solid. During the intermission that followed their time, most people stayed put for fear of losing their long staked-out spots.
As the latecomers dutifully filled in the last of the nosebleed seats, Interpol emerged to uproarious applause, which seemed to continue throughout the entirety of a set that, as might be expected from the back-to-basics approach of El Pintor, balanced standout new material, memorably “All the Rage Back Home,” with crowd-pleasing throwbacks to their glory days, including “PDA” and, of course, “Evil.” But the set also tossed in a few worthwhile digressions into the less passionately celebrated entries of their back catalogue along the way, such as “Rest My Chemistry” from their lone Capitol Records release, 2007’s Our Love to Admire. While the proceedings were definitely enhanced by a delirious barrage of lighting effects, CGI imagery and distorted live video, the band’s performance seemed considerably energized by their current momentum, suggesting this comeback could become permanent.
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