Thursday 28 December 2017

Lining Up 2018 Indie Bands (Yonaka, Sea Girls, Weekend Debt & More..)

The last few years has been good for some Indie Bands I've been following. Watching bands such as The Hunna open small independent festivals in a Cathedral of 50 people, to the following year Headlining Festival Republics stage at Leeds Festival, or The Sherlock's first album release and massive nationwide tour.  Admittedly just as many haven't made it.

So who's on the radar for success in 2018? I'm not sure! But here's a list of some of the up and comings on my playlist, I'm hoping to hear more of.
I'm Really liking Yonaka - who draws similarities to Yeah Yeah Yeahs & No Doubt, and I'm
 also liking the sound of Sea Girls, very British Indie, think Bastille! 
If you're interested in a really new raw Indie band listen to Weekend Debt, a Scottish band with influences from Arctic Monkeys & Courteeners, with a deeper twist.

Yonaka
Sea Girls
Weekend Debt
Sam Fender

Le Boom
False Heads
Shame


Have a listen to the playlist and see what you think? 

Friday 15 December 2017

New Tracks December

Following my previous posts I've decided to merge any new releases into 1 from now on.
So here's the latests from some of the bands in my sights. I'm not including Videos today's, but you can find these on your favourite streaming service :)


Eminem - In Your Head 
OK I'm doing new tracks, but given Marshall just dropped his new album today I'd really like to call out the full thing Revival. I've only had chance to listen to it once, but it's fully packed with A class duets and it's smashing some plays on Spotify already. 
Call out track has to be 'In Your Head', I mean chucking The Cranberries in? This man's a genius!



The Hunna - Dare
This band was one of the hottest albums for me for 2016 and saw a good performance at Manchester Cathedral. This is their 2nd release this year, after 'Summer' (which was a little too similar to 'Brother')



Feeder - Everybody Hurts 
What more do you need? Feeder covering R.E.M... Yes!



MGMT - When You Die
It's been over 4 years since MGMT gave us some new music. Whilst they're still in the psychedelic rock, this latest track has taken a softer approach than we're used to. Worth a listen, I'm interested in what the rest of the new album will be like.


Thom Yorke - Saturdays
Radiohead frontman debuted a bunch in unreleased songs in LA this week, as well a the first live performances of some of his previous solo work. There's more than just Saturday, but that's the one I one I was most fond of. I'm on and off a Radiohead fan, and this Ibiza chill out sound from Thom Yorke adds a uplifting change to the party wind down.

The Streets - Burn Bridges & Sometimes I Hate My Friends More than My Enemies

15 years after 'Original Pirate Material' was released and 6years since we've had new material. Mike and the crew are back with 2 new tracks!

Friday 8 December 2017

The Neighborhood - Scary Love (new single)

The Neighborhood, an amazing band, ever since I heard Sweater Weather I've been following these guys.  Thier latest single out this week Scary Love


Thursday 7 December 2017

Friday 1 December 2017

Anti-flag - American Fall

Anti-flag! 

The current political roller coaster across the western world has given some good, if THE only good thing, plenty of punk material! I don't wish to be so crass about the depressing state of affairs, but music is a virtue to the escapism we so often crave. I hold onto the punk roots which opened my mind to music and life. And honestly, what is a better muse to the Anarchist Punks than Right-winged Bigotry?

We've had 30 years of Anti-Flag! ok technically it's only 20 years since their first album, 20 years since Drink Drank Punk & Fuck Police Brutality. Now 2017, we're a dozen albums in and still Anti-Flag are producing great tracks with no sign of letting up. Admittedly their was a lull in recent albums, but the afore mentioned state has given these veteran punks some gas.

American Fall, the follow up album to their 2015 release American Spring, aptly named for obvious reasons. The album is so we'll produced from start to end, the audial clarity to the story telling in the tracks. Notably the opening track 'American Attraction' which draws you in immediately with catchy lyrics and rifts.



I got that gun, got that drug,
I got everything you want,
Got your bombs, got that blood,
I got everything you know it's the American Attraction.


Talking catchy lyrics, this album is exploding with them. Every song screams Bouncy Fast Paced Anthems. See 2nd track 'The Criminals', 3rd track which has more of a carnival feel 'When The Wall Falls'... 'Racist'...'Casualty'... 'I came, I saw, I believe'... 'Digital Blackout'...heck too many to mention, literally the album is hit after hit but those in bold above are my favourites.

As you can draw from the names there is a theme to the album and it's on my playlist for the long haul. If you haven't listened to it yet get on Spotify or Amazon Music and listen to it. Only downside..  it's only 11 tracks.
https://open.spotify.com...


I'll leave you with the lyrics of Racist:



Just 'cause you don't know you're racist
Just 'cause you don't know you're sexist

Just 'cause you don't know you're fascist

You don't get a pass for your ignorance





Green Day - Back In The USA

Friday 27 October 2017

Kele Okereke - Fatherland. (Kele / Bloc Party)

When it comes early 21st century UK Indie bands I'd bet you don't get too far into the list before Bloc Party appear. Releasing their first studio album Silent Alarm in 2005 they stormed the charts and landed a Mercury Prize nomination. Since then we've had a raft of albums and mixed tapes from them, each time we're offered an array of talent and varying degrees of Electronica, Alt Dance, Post Punk & Indie.

At the front of Bloc Party stands Kele Okereke, he's one of those Artists whose voice you can spot a mile off, whether that be on Bloc Party, his solo work or featuring with Trance or EDM legends such as Tiesto and Chemical Brothers. 


Throughout the last 15years Kele has treated us to a whole raft of albums, and as mentioned this isn't the first solo album from him. He's previously released albums under the mononym Kele during the gaps between Bloc Party Albums, as well as a few tracks under Kele Okereke in 2014.


Fatherland is the first Studio Album released under the name Kele Okereke, I wonder if the reason for the name change is due to the change in style. If you're looking for an album synonymous to the Oscillating Audiogasms of Silent Alarm or A Weekend in the City then this isn't going to satisfy those ear drums.

Even Bloc Party's most recent album Hymns, which took a slow down in pace, is far from Fatherland.



So what about Fatherland? Kele's put down the Synthesisers and Modeller Pedals, moving away from the electro punk pace, replacing them with simple Folk acoustic sounds. In fact the entire album is Kele with an acoustic guitar and mellow drums - occasionally featuring an additional instrument such as a Piano, Saxophone or Violin.


The only electro feel within the entire album is the keyboards and slightly lifted pace of Grounds For Resentment which features Olly Alexander (of Years and Years). On the lines of additional vocals Fatherlands also lends vocals from Corinne Bailey Rae on track Versions of Us.


It feels as if this whole album is telling us a story the name change, the sound change and the image change and that's before we even listen to the first lyrics. This is a story of romance and affect of time, influenced by the birth of his daughter according to Kele. It features a story of his relationships with his long term boyfriend, family & heritage. 


As the album moves through it shows the rollercoaster of life and romance. Happy upbeat new relationships the woo-ing and passion. See 'Do U Right' my personal favourite from the album, fairly upbeat and fun. To Savannah an ode his daughter.


Fatherland the story of an Indie rockstar of Nigerian & Catholic background in a same-sex relationship having his first born (not that you can simplify a man down to a few basic facts), Kele has always been somewhat shy and unforthcoming with the media, but I think this album brings humanity and complexity to the surface.


Fatherland is a testament to Kele's life and his abilities as a performer to tell a story in such a long way from his usual style. It's new, it's different, it's good!


I still can't help but feel I want more rhythmic guitar and electro punk though!




Wednesday 18 October 2017

Beth Ditto - Albert Hall Manchester 17 October 2017

As I lay writing this from a hotel in Dusseldorf, nodding asleep & knackered! 24 hours previous I'd be knocking back a tequila and 2 songs deep into Beth Ditto's solo set. The end of her 6 week tour, in Albert Hall Manchester.


I certainly know why, despite being due up for a flight to Germany at 4am the next day to conduct a 2 day training course, I thought it would be a good idea to go see the one and only Beth Ditto, of Gossip fame. 

I pushed back the travel and at several points almost cancelled going to the gig. I'm so glad I didn't! (Shout out to the European teams at ao.com for accommodating my Gig plans)

This has been the best show in a while at Albert Hall. And this month alone I saw both Placebo and Interpol, unfortunately those times they oversold and we were crammed in. Beth Ditto, having moved the venue from Gorilla, was slightly less packed - and it made for a good gig.


Having recently disbanded from long time band Gossip, Beth released her solo album Fake Sugar. To be honest  
after her EP in 2011 we knew this album was going to be great! C'mon... I Wrote The Book, she wrote the whole damn library. 

Venturing away from the Punk/Post-punk sound shes moved into cross genres from Alt, Indie to Country. Love it, and that was very evident Beth was eager, and anxious, about the reception she would receive, and we did not disappoint... Beth must have said Thank You 100 times, but Thank You Beth!


Starting off with Oh My God, much of the first half was Fake Sugar songs, with the early EP chucked in for good measure. You can't fault her vocals or the band, they we're spot on and perfect all the time.

What makes Beth Ditto great is her audience interactions, a good 25% of the gig is the Beth Ditto talk show. From stories of anxiety after Gossip, to jokes about her 'English Family' in the VIP section. She spent so much time waving and reach out to people she knew, Instagrammers she'd spoken too. This was the first time in a long time I'd seen someone for the crowd more than themselves.

The only thing lacking was her ability to literally get into the crowd and sing with us, sweat with us, and full on go crazy. But that was the venue and it was not a deal breaker, we still got classic barefoot Beth!


Moving away from her solo song such as Oh La La and In and Out we were treated to some Gossip classics, which needless to say tore the house down... Love Long Distance, Heavy Cross.. and in the encore Standing In The Way of Control - the defining song for  Beth/Gossip for me, well they all are but that's so punk it's awesome.

We also got treated to A Little Respect and a rendition of We Are The Champions too which was good!  Shout out to her band who were all amazing too.

Overall best in a long time, and to be seen again and again.









Sunday 15 October 2017

Placebo - Manchester Albert Hall 11th Oct 2017

Here it is Placebo in Manchester again, it feels like they've been touring this 20th Anniversary for 20years. Not that I'm complaining, I can watch Placebo over and over - as I have, this is my 7th  or 8th time.

I came across Placebo by happenstance in 2002, when turning up at a friends house a skatevideo was on in the background. I always remember this as Mark Appleyard Flip Sorry - thats when I heard "My hearts a Tart your bodies rent, my bodies broken yours is bent". Instantly I was in love with the style and sound Brian and Stefen (including the 2 Steve's) created... and continue to create and, nichely, redesign.

It is this niche redesign that truely places Placebo as 1 of my favourites live. The abilty to take the entire back catalogue and peform it differently, perfectly different everytime. Extremes of this adaptation can be seen in the Acoustic Angkor Wat concert. 

Placebo have 7 studio albums, 1 cover album and a raft of B-sides/Greatest hits. This tally gives them a very long list of songs to choose from. Each of these songs has several versions, versions of the same song to remember and rehearsed. It takes great skill to perfectly flick between versions of the same songs frequently.

Admittedly I can see why many versions may be frustrating to fans who love singing along in time. I love watching Interpol play their songs like it's straight off the album, great, predictable and perfect. But I love the adaptions Placebo can create.

Back to the task. Opening with a Video of Every Me and Every You, then the guys came out... Stefan first followed by Brian, kicking into Pure Morning




As usual Placebo were amazing and perfectly performing as I professional and in time.

Unsually for Placebo they stopped early into the 2nd song, asking for everyone to put camera's down. The tour so far has been in Arena's so this time it was a much smaller intimate gig, and they wanted everyone to be in the moment, which certainly happened. Although it didn't stop some.

This kind of put me off, but I understood it. As someone who loves to take the odd picture for my blogs and for memories I was a little upset, however given Placebo have had issues with people streaming their gigs online, as well and their obvious anti-socialmedia society we have become it make sense.

Back into the song they stopped again and threatened to have people removed,  I couldn't figure out if this was Brian have a joke. Although today he didnt see his usual self, there wasn't much talking and joking between songs.

The gig itself was amazing performance wise, with a 21 song setlist of the best of the best from their 8 albums. With a very emotional Without You Im Nothing - at times audience members crying during it.

I did take a snap of  Trump video they had which made me laugh. Although the security staff did tell me off for that




Loving Placebo, Brian and Stefan it was always going to be the best.

I took few other pics right at the end, as they took their final bows.




If you love Placebo check out their other bands/projects 

Hotel Persona - Stefans side project 
Love Amongst Ruin - Steve Hewitts band

Also checkout Brian's songs were he features on Timo Mas tracks such as First Day plus others


Monday 25 September 2017

The Sherlocks - Manchester Academy 15th Sep 2017

Sherlocks at the Acedemy. So to start I had a spare ticket which was quickly snapped up after a quick Facebook share (at Face value I might add, I am against any form of sapping up tickets and selling them on for profit! I believe the law & Ticket agencies could do much better still).

So I met the buyer at queue for the doors opening @ 6:45pm, not my plan - far too early. Sherlocks aren't on until 9:30pm. There was a very big queue of 12-18year olds. I'm trying to work out if this is their first gig and don't yet know they'll be stood around waiting or they're making a night of it... either way fast forward 2hours and we head back to go into the Acedemy. There was a bunch of 14year olds being refused entry for basically crawling and falling all over the show.

Get inside after a search and ID check, best go to the bar and get a pint and shot before they come on... apparently 1 ID per drink, so you can only have a pint or a shot at 1 time!

Time to start... Last Night, what a song to start, excellent! Leading on from Escapade to Will You Be There.



I can't complain about the performance, they were as excellent as my review from Leeds Festival.  Playing the album in full rather than just 5 tracks. 




I was hoping for some other songs, maybe a treat of a cover or something but they stuck to their tracks. Which was pretty good anyway and well performed, they weren't  a note out.




The only criticism was their stage presence. Interludes between songs is yet to be refined by these guys, maybe a continued bassline, feedback or drum beat. Instead, they stopped the songs and plunged into silence except the rumble of the audience. 

The obligatory Manchester how you doing, and thank yous came, but still felt very empty between. Their was a chant of Oh Jeremny Corbyn, I'm not sure what/why, even stating they arent political.

None the less, worth the visit and ticket price. Looking forward to seeing them grow and slicken their set over the coming years.




Sunday 24 September 2017

Collaborations / Side Projects

When it comes to joining forces, creating synergies from mega artist and mega artists, sometimes it the ones who go a little under the radar who are the best.

I don't want to talk about 'featuring' tracks, or collaborations were both artist hold their stage names as the artists (ie Greenday & U2).. I'm talking side projects under new names, new publicity, starting back from the roots.

Lets starts at a personal favourite of mine:

Banks and Steelz.
Comprising of Paul Banks off of Interpol and RZA of Wu Tang Clan.
Neither are new to side projects, Pauls released Albums under several names and also his own name. He also released his own hip-hop mix. Which is where they lie.. a new breed of Rock meets Hip-Hop. With a full album and new wave of singles out, there is a plethora of Rap verses by RZA supported Indie lyrical riddles courtesy of Paul.

Most tracks have a theme with philosophical focus to the world and to humanity. Such as the most recent release Who Needs the World. But the track that gives a mixed taste to their album Anything But Words would be Giants



Transplants 
Yes lets go punk. Primarily the work of Tim Armstrong & Rob Aston (Rancid) and Travis Barker (Blink-182). Again artists not unknown for side projects, but they'll probably come up later on or in Collaborations Pt2. 

We're heading into deeper faster sounds as you'd expect from Rancid and the flowing hip-hop elements from a mixture of featured guests along with Rob. 3 Albums have been released over 15years, with the self titled first being a favourite of mind.. lets go with the most popular
- Diamonds and Guns  followed by  DJ DJ





Team Sleep 
Chino Moreno (Deftones), Gil Sharone (Marylin Manson's drummer) and DJ Crook bring together this headf*** of  band Team Sleep. With guests such as Mike Patten (Faith No More)
I say headf*** because this is the frontman of Deftones in an Alt.Rock/Trip Hop sound... His voice is so unique and awesome in Deftones, to hear him more relaxed is weird, but it works and it's awesome.




But it goes further - Chino Moreno has another - Palms
and from a scale of Deftones to Triphop, Team Sleep is in the middle and Palms is Triphop.


Heavens
Ahhh Matt Skiba (Alkaline Trio/Blink 182) and Josiah Steinbrick (LA Producer) come together to produce an Indie Album : Patent Pending (2006). Again Matt's unique voice is pretty recognisable from his major acts and this combination works. Its like Morrissey's down beat vocals meets Joy Division... with Matt's voice.



Hotel Persona
Ok this is more Side project than collaboration but hey I feel I've neglected one of my fav bands: Placebo. Naturally you'd be drawn to Brian and all his collaborations and features but today I'm looking at Stefan. Stefan and his husband have a side project 'Hotel Persona'.
Also a track does feature Brian Molko, so even better.


Love Amongst Ruin
Steve Hewitt (Placebo) and Perry Bamonte (The Cure). So this isn't major frontmen merging, but they have a good sound and very placebo-esque.

Lose You're way:
https://open.spotify.com/track/08ffNhyt2t9oYOsS1dYVPA

When I started this post I tried to add structure and maintain a flow of genre. The list of Collaborations & Side projects is ridculous so I've decided to continue with just a selection of some of my fav eclectic, new/old, side projects.



Zwan (AKA The True Poets of Zwan)
Formed by members of The Smashing Pumpkins, Slint, Tortoise, Chavez, and A Perfect Circle
Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) and Paz Lenchantin (Currently of Pixies), with David Pajo (Slint and short term Touring member of Interpol)

Bring together this supergroup, who, with a very short stint bridge the gap after the original disband of Smashing Pumkins. The sound is very much smashing pumpkins with an increase in tempo.



If you've enjoyed some of these, check out some more well known ones 


Electronic
Bernie (Joy Division / New Order) with Jonny Marr (The Smiths)... what more could you want.

The Falcon
Punk Supergroup: Brendan Kelly (The Lawrence Arms), Dan Andriano (Alkaline Trio), Tod Mohney (Rise Against)

Dreamcar
Recent collaboration of Davey Havok (AFI) and Tony Kanal, Tom Dumont and Adrian Young (No Doubt)




Wednesday 20 September 2017

Poets Of The Fall - Alt.Rock Finnish Band

So if I challenged myself to try and shar some of the lesser known, long established, bands I enjoy. I am going to start this journey with a Finnish Alternative Rock band who have dominated Finlands Album charts with numbers 1s for the last 15years. 

They're on their own record label which may explain the smaller reach as over in the UK and wider music communities I've struggled to come across anyone who has heard of these (except the friend who pointed them out to me).

Origins of the Band: Having been made famous by their adaption of poem 'Late Goodbye' which was produced as the song for the closing titles of the game Max Payne 2 : The Fall Of Max Payne, and also featured several times within the game being sung/whistled by some characters.
Essentially the Poet writer and producer formed to create POTF off the back of their friendship and success in the game. They are therefore more likely known to the Gaming community



If I was to describe their sound: I would think 'Metallica Nothing Else Matters'. Which is to some people Metallica's worst song, but to others it's the best. The heavy rock come acoustic. They are extremely catchy lyrically and with a very wide range of vocals and sounds, much of their catalogue comes under Alternative / Progressive / Indie genres.

Personally my favorite song goes back to the title track of their 2006 album 'Carnival of Rust' 



Monday 18 September 2017

Ryan Adams - Manchester 14th Sep 2017

Heres a guy thats been at it a long a time and probably hasn't got the accolade he deserves and honestly, until recently I hadn't heard of him. Ryan Adams, 42 from North Carolina, he's had a 2 decade long career with 16 studio albums. I'm not going to sit here and pretend I know them and him, my knowledge comes from the 20 or so songs I've known from being played in my partners playlists.

Alternative Country / Folk Rock is pretty much the genre, though I'd say at parts he floats into Hard Rock. 

The gig was at The Apollo, which wasn't the best venue on the night. I'm not sure if this was a combination of recent events but upped security was frustraiting and at times over the top. You can't stand within 1.5meters of the sides or back so there was a lot of people getting pushed to the sides and back in, nothing aggressive but poorly managed/set out. I don't recall it being like that at previous gigs.
Also the lower bar was closed, there was rumours this was at request of Ryan, though I don't know. So getting booze was a long wait, it was made up though by the queue having a chuckle at a the Barman who had an uncanny resemblance to Samwel Tarly so there was a lot of Game Of Thrones based jokes about the long queue. Also they don't do Tequila!

Into to the Stalls and we're waiting on Ryan. Got a couple of jokes murmuring in the background about playing 'Summer of 69' I guess this happens alot, I know got the jibe a few times at work when I said who I was seeing tonight. 

The set and lighting for Ryan Adams expect mood lighting and backlighting with an array of TVs stacked instead of the usual strobe lights. The reason for this is Ryan suffers epilepsy, but that doesn't stop the show from looking visual fantastic.





The lights made it difficult to see Ryans face a lot, plus the long hair didn't help. Not that it really made a difference, the performance was a show of why he's had 16albums. He's an excellent guitarist and never missed a note vocally. It's hard to say who i'd compare him to, he's very much the classic cult rocker long hair and V shaped guitar, you can hear similarties to  Father John Misty and Springsteen at times.

The 26 song setlist started with Do You Still Love Me off his new album, then it was mixture of the back catalogue flicking from one album the other. Very fast paced making his through the tracks pretty quickly with a lot of energy, it seemed each song had a guitar change too, it's almost asif he swapped guitars for each album the song related to. I haven't seen that many changes before.



The paced slowed down when he played the title track to the new album Prisoner, opting to go it alone in an acoustic with just a few fairy lights on the mic stand




Picking up the pace and moving back between albums, and a load more guitar changes. He certainly looks to be enjoying himself and the audience too. It's not heavy or overly fast paced so much of the crowd is just stood bopping along and singing. Although that didn't stop several people needing to be stretchered out by paramedics.


I don't recall a huge interaction with the audiance, the occassional Hows everyone doing and a joke about the TV's. Overall the gig was pretty good, worth the night out and a different genre than I'd normally go to





Ryan Adams - Prisoner (Spotify) 

Tuesday 12 September 2017

Photography (side project blog)

With the various styles of photography I take at Gigs or during my Travels I have a created a new blog specifically for some of my fav pics.

https://photolifeofme.blogspot.co.uk/



Saturday 9 September 2017

Top Indie Covers

After sharing a few cool Punk covers I decided to look at sharing some of my favourite Indie covers. 
Where better to start than two epitomes of Indie The Killers, covering no other than Interpol.


Killers - Obstacle 1


Tegan and Sarah's cover of Umbrella


Lissie covering Go Your Own way 


Not sure if we're venturing into Post-post/Alternative  but hey, what's  a better cover than: 


Placebo's  Running Up That Hill


With Indie being  a fairly varied Genre its hard to pick just a few, espcially ones that are just not another Live Lounge Version. Anyway no good covers blog could exclude this next one



Futureheads  Hounds of Love


Bloc Party - Say it Right 


Franz Ferdinand - Call Me


The Kooks - Kids

The Courteeners - About You Now




Heres a few others on a spotify playlist
Spotify Playlist - Indie Covers


Dancing On My Own  -  Calum Scott
No Diggity  -  Chet Faker
99 Problems   -  Hugo





Wednesday 6 September 2017

Top Punk Covers

So spent the day listening to Punk covers, here's a few of my top ones. Originally I set out to share my top 10, but I came across this amazing Daft Punk cover by Halestorm so that's tagged on too.

Link to my spotify playlist, if you fancy a listen
Spotify : Playlist Top Punk Covers

In no particular order:

Little Lion Man - Tonight Alive
Lose Yourself - Cut Down Clay 
The Boys of Summer - The Ataris
Payphone - Crown The Empire
I Melt With You - Mest
Somebody That I Used to Know - Mayday Parade
My Own Worst Enemy - Get Scared
Dead and Gone - Cute Is What We Aim For
Rolling In The Deep - Go Radio
Sweater Weather - Slaves
Get Lucky - Halestorm



Monday 4 September 2017

Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights 15th anniversary Manchester 3rd September

It's not unknown that Interpol can be inconsistent when it comes to live performances. I've seen Paul enough times to know he can often be vocally out of sorts, even a listen to their 4th studio album shows they're not a flawless band.  None-the-less, every opportunity to see Interpol should be taken. Even if you hit an off day, you can guarantee that the gig will be one you never forget.

Today was not a off day, not by far. In fact, this was one of the best performances I have witnessed from Interpol, and I've seen Paul in his many forms across the world. Vocally Paul was clear to hear, even if after 15years its still impossible to know just what he's saying (lets see about this ham), and he was hitting notes better than his 24year old self.




It took a while for the gig to start, doors opened at 8pm and due to start at 9pm. It was 9.30 by the time it got going, queues were still trying to get into the Albert Hall.
We managed to get ahead and to the front pretty easily though. 

I've seen a few setlist and track arrangements for this tour, but in this instance they come out and started straight into Turn on the Bright Lights, with Daniel kicking us off with the unmistakable rift which is Untitled. Nothing but goosebumps



As usual the donning the Black suits and saying nothing other the odd introduction and Thank You. What do you expect from the mysterious quintet? This is their style and this is what makes them Interpol.

I watch showmen, I watching bands who offer a different take on their own songs, I love them. But I also love a band who turn up, smash their perfectly fine songs out one after another, uninterrupted, to a joyful crowd. It works.

We are continued to be serenaded with the Tour titled album; Obstacle 1, NYC, PDA



You will notice despite this being a tribute to their first album, the band was lacking Carlos on Bass. This is unfortunate but the guy on bass was more than adequate, I dont know his name though.
Edit: Thanks to fellow Redditor user cheesy_star  the touring bassist's  name is Brad Traux on bass



Continuing through the album, Say Hello to the Angels, Hands Away, Obstacle 2, Stella was a Diver, Roland, The New. Amazing! Everyone was inline ontime and giving a performance to truely ode the accomplishments of the last 15years.

At many Interpol gigs you get a wider range of fans in the audience, your punks, indies, electro/synths, goths, and alround eclectics - spanning every age. Which often means the atmosphere can vary from standing quietly and nodding along to all out sing and, air guitar & pogo.

It was clear today was going to be all and more, at several points drawing a circle in the pit, something I've not witnessed at an Interpol gig before. Best atmosphere by far. Being so into it I took very little pictures of the crowd.




Progressing onto a mix of their greatest hits Specialist, Not Even Jail, Slow Hands, Hienrich Manoeuvre, All The Rage Back Home and ending on the classic Evil.


In the midst of all that we got a taste of the new stuff, with the latest song Real Life. Honestly it sounded good, but amongst the centre front of a pit it's hard to get a true feel for the track and all videos seems to be poorly filmed... so I'll await the release before I really get a feel for it.

Overall this Tour shows why Interpol stand the test of time and truely can provide the show of shows, especially when it comes to their best album. 10/10.







And after all thats if you've not got it here is a link to the TOTBL album download here:

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