Interpol @Bowery Ballroom, June 5th

Okay, should I be embarassed when the bouncer of the Bowery Ballroom is checking people's IDs, and he waives me through because he says he sees me all the time?! So what if I was there less than a week ago. As I've stated before, the sound system generally rules at the Bowery, and I expected no less for this secret way sold-out Interpol show.

I had seen Interpol on three prior occasions: November 2004 at Hammerstein, March 2005 at Radio City (4th row pit, baby!), and at Jones Beach opening for the Pixies in June 2005. All three times were to support their last album, Antics, and by the third time, the boys seemed pretty fatigued. It could have been the abundance of sunlight during their set, or the abundance of vodka in my body, or my impatience for the Pixies, but I found they had lost their edge a bit.

I salivated at the thought of seeing Interpol in my favorite venue. In anticipation of tonight's show, I listened to their first two albums on my iPod on repeat for the last few days for the first time in about two years and caught the lead single off their upcoming one -- "The Heinrich Maneuver" -- on their website. Despite people's inclination to write off anything that has become popular, Interpol's music still remains excellent to me. And the boys did please the packed house. They teased us with the debut of only three new songs (including the aforementioned single) in a setlist packed with favorite oldies. Perhaps the one negative of focusing on favorites is it encourages people to sing along loudly and that can be fun and all, but some people, well, really ought to leave it to Paul Banks.

Oh, by the way, I spent most of the show watching Carlos D. playing the bass. He's pretty fuckin' fantastic despite being a Smokey McSmokerson! And his mustache could definitely kick the ass of the mustache on Brandon Flowers!

Overall, a good, solid show. I will probably buy the new cd when it comes out, but will I feel a huge need to see Interpol again in a larger venue? Probably not.

PS -- Everyone came out for this one. Met up with Wawa, both Julies, Gina, the Indie Twins, a bunch of friends of friends, and Music Slut Matt, who's got the setlist and some nice pics on his site.