INTERPOL AND THE WALKMEN CELEBRATE 20 YEARS OF INDIE COOLNESS & STYLE AT KIA FORUM
As the year is coming to a close, celebrations are in order. Namely, it’s the 20th anniversary of the 2004 seminal work from New York indie legends Interpol and Antics. The NYC threesome finally reached Los Angeles and sold out the Kia Forum alongside their oldest fellow New Yorkers, The Walkmen. The show was the hottest in town, and tickets were slim to come by; as photographers, we were only permitted to shoot the first three songs of each act and go our merry way, so this review will focus only on those three songs.
Opening the night to a venue that was already more than half full, The Walkmen, led by the [stoic] but friendly Hamilton Leithauser, jumped right into the nostalgic celebrations by opening with “What’s In It For Me,” an upbeat number from their 2004 Bows & Arrows. The band jammed beneath dark, moody lights - a motif that will continue throughout the entire show, Interpol’s set included - and swirled around in an atmospheric fog. The pit was packed with fans singing along, reaffirming that The Walkmen made the right decision to reunite only a few short years ago after being on an indefinite hiatus for nearly a decade.
Before jumping into their classic “In The New Year,” which, coincidentally, has always had a bit of an Interpol-esque sound to its plucky guitar, Leithauser mentioned how honored they were to tour with their old friends Interpol. He recalled playing early shows at New York City’s tiny Mercury Lounge with them, giving a shoutout to Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Strokes. Luckily, those who might’ve missed out on the indie sleaze era can still see many of these bands in their top form. The Walkmen may have taken a few breaks in their career, but they still sound as good as ever; their maturity and age make some of their music hit harder; the vulnerability of “On The Water” feels more delicate, touching, and meaningful when you know the band playing it has been going at it for more than two decades. The Walkmen are one of the more overlooked artists in the new indie sleaze revival, but this is your official recommendation to give them the attention they deserve.
After The Walkmen and once every last seat in the Kia Forum appeared occupied, Interpol took the stage with all the sense of excellent mystery they always had. Paul Banks, Daniel Kessler, and their touring band - drummer Sam Fogarino had to take a break from their tour for some health issues - stood behind a thin, white scrim that obscured most of their appearance except for their silhouettes. While the band was a bit coy with visuals, they weren’t coy musically; immediately, the band dove into Antics, playing the album from beginning to end, starting with “Next Exit.” As their silhouettes made dramatic shapes on stage, white and red lights swirled around them, forever setting that tone evident in nearly all their work; red, white, and black pop up in their album artwork, the band’s fashion, and certainly in their live shows.
Even though Interpol is notoriously hard to photograph (see the previous note about red and white lights only), they certainly brought that classic and effortless coolness they always exude. Only a verse into my favorite track on Antics, “Evil,” that dramatic and ghostly scrim dropped from high above the stage and fell into the photo pit; as the band was revealed to the crowd, cheers grew louder and louder, and Daniel Kessler’s guitar roared through the sound. Paul Banks, wearing a pair of dark Raybans, sang in his signature baritone that seems to have remained unchanged over the last two decades. On “Narc,” the band felt like they were genuinely hitting their stride as Kessler bopped about the stage and moody red lights shone down over each of them from the rafters.
Even in catching half a dozen songs from the indie legends, it was pretty clear that both Interpol and The Walkmen were staples of the early 2000s post-punk movement for a reason. Their work ethic, coolness, top-notch songs that still resonate decades later, and consistency in performance and thematics prove they are acts that ought to be still revered. Getting to celebrate 20 years of a record like Antics - which came out in the same year as Franz Ferdinand’s self-titled debut, The Killers Hot Fuss, and Arcade Fire’s Funeral - is something unique that no one should take for granted.
THE WALKMEN
INTERPOL
