Interpol
Opera House
Sydney, Australia
January 5, 2019
Joy Division. A band whose legacy and focus on mood, melancholy and expression has never ceased to reverberate through the realm of alternative music. Musically, it would be difficulty to deny that Joy Division’s sparse eerie spatiality and illusion of physicality, i.e. Hook’s trademark physical high lead bass lines, the distorted guitars that intentionally left gaps and the non-traditional passive drumming along with Curtis’ laconic, baritone vocal delivery has had a major influence on Interpol’s approach to channelling their angsty alchemy.
Incarnating underneath an illuminated disco ball, Interpol’s silhouettes with their trademark tailored suits were set in scene by a sophisticated and at times powerful light show, that not only added to their atmospheric performance but was at times expertly used not merely as an amplifier – specifically when it comes to their subtle yet seismic tempo changes - but as a counterpoint, which certainly aided the enthusiastic audience to get lost and fully immerse themselves in a setlist that spanned their fifteen year long career.
Interpol creates hauntingly beautiful big music that creates a canvas for recipients to project and infuse their songs with their own sentiments, which creates a sense of intimacy and their live show is a natural extension of that dislocating and at times both alienating and unifying experience.
Deliberately understated, the dark glamour and ennui of Interpol is warmer than Joy Division’s desolated, noir-ish existentialism – there is something comforting, romantic and uplifting glistening through the gloom which is framed and set in scene with the timeless melange of spectral vigour and haunting shadow play.
A live show that is cinematic and puts one in touch with the anonymity of being lost in a dark metropolis, which is more often than not the essence and one of the driving themes of Interpol’s narrative.
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Photos by Daniel Boud (provided)
