It was the type of event that was missing from the Athens live agenda; a concert from a popular band still at the top of its powers. Interpol’s latest album may not have had the greatest hit-to-miss ratio of the band’s career so far, but it was still a good effort adding a few more awesome tracks to their remarkable repertoire, like "Barricade", "Lights" or "Success". And with a stone cold classic ("Turn On The Bright Lights") plus two more high caliber albums ("Antics" and "Our Love To Admire") already under their belts, Interpol have by now accumulated a great wealth of top class tunes to choose their set list from, making them one of the hottest live tickets around despite losing the considerable talents of bass player Carlos D last year.
The set list that the band has chosen to present at its current tour that finally brought them to Athens for the first time ever, is rich in material from their first two albums, perhaps acknowledging the fact that they’re widely regarded as their best efforts to date, while the third LP is pretty much sidestepped (only "The Heinrich Maneuver" was included, which is rather "unfair" if you ask me as this leaves out some pretty great tunes) and only a handful of tracks are included from their most recent full-length, possibly a recognition that although this was their eponymous effort it was certainly far from being their definitive work.
Despite the fact that the four songs that were omitted from the first album happen to be among my all-time Interpol favorites (how it’s possible to favor "Hands Away" over "PDA" is beyond me) and the not so great sound that we had at the left side of the front of the stage where the C.M.C. team was situated (in stark contrast with the situation at the venue’s balcony where we’ve learned that the quality of the sound was actually crystal clear), the hour and a half show that we got from Interpol on Tuesday night was quite a pleasure, with Paul Banks being in fine voice, the suited-up Daniel Kessler offering killer guitar riffs, Sam Fogarino providing relentless fire-power behind his drum kit and Brad Truax, the new touring bassist, doing his best to fill some pretty big shoes.
The band’s strong performance was met with a wildly enthusiastic reception by the audience and the bra that was soon decorating Bank’s mic stand was proof that everyone was having a great time. Let’s hope that the success of this gig will bring more top names to our city in the future, so we don’t have to try combining our holidays abroad with festivals in order to see our favorite bands in action (check out here what we had to say about the Madrid festival where we first had the opportunity to enjoy Interpol live three years ago).
Here’s the set list: Success, Say Hello To The Angels, Narc, Hands Away, Barricade, Leif Ericsson, The New, C’Mere, Lights, Evil, NYC, Length Of Love, Heinrich Maneuver, Memory Serves, Slow Hands. Encore: Untitled, Take You on A Cruise, Not Even Jail, Obstacle 1
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| Interpol, live in Athens (June 7, 2011) |
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| Electic Litany, supporting Interpol @ Entertainment Stage |
Interpol - Memory Serves, live @ Entertainment Stage (Athens, June 7, 2011)
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