interpol
friday, february 11, 2005 • the triple door, seattle wa • review and pics by mike
review: On a sunny Friday afternoon we trekked into downtown Seattle for a super-secret exclusive
Interpol performance at the Triple Door. The show was for
KEXP "500 Club" members (and KEXP staff/volunteers, which is how we got to go, as well as folks who won tickets), so we were surrounded by people who can afford to contribute $500 to the publicly-supported station. The Triple Door is kind of a yuppie jazz caberet sort of club, with a giant fishtank and big displays of exotic flowers in the lounge area where everyone waited before we were let into the auditorium, and they had a table set out with free coffee and tea. It was kind of a weird atmosphere for us to be among the hipster socio-economic elite in this ritzy place obviously designed to cater to other socio-economic elite types. Interpol played 4 songs from their new album
Antics and then were interviewed by the delightful KEXP DJ
Cheryl Waters. The band was good, though they didn't show a whole lot of personality either playing or speaking. Bassist
Carlos D. looked especially bored to be there, dutifully fulfilling his band obligations. Maybe they were saving their energy for their big show that evening. I was kind of amused by lead singer
Paul Banks's
Barney Martin-style eyewear. The whole shebang was broadcast a few hours later (under the pretense of being "live") on KEXP, so we got to hear it again at home later that afternoon. It's interesting how different things sound in a live setting vs. on the air: live, it sounded much fuller, but in the broadcast I picked up more detail. You can stream the set from the station's
online archives.
It was kind of neat to get to go to such an exclusive event and experience what the elite get to experience, and it was nice to be able to see Interpol, who we like, without having to shell out the big bucks for their theatre show later that night (although the parking garage we used gouged us for $15 for less than 3 hours, ouch). Besides, if it was basically a longer version of their afternoon set, a longer show might have gotten pretty boring. (Not to mention, we were going to
Luna's farewell tour that night anyway.) The best parts of the experience were getting a semi-holiday by working a half day from home, and our delicious lunch at the
Crumpet Shop at Pike Place Market after the show.
(mike 02.05)
related links
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listen to this show at kexp.org
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more of mike's pics
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interpol website
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the triple door
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kexp
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an ironically appropriate review of the crumpet shop
