City

A

Date

a

Venue

Austin, Texas, USA

September 22, 2002

The Mercury at Jazz

Review

By Steven

 at one of the best intimate venues to see an act, 2 friends and I headed to our first ever Interpol show. I had heard of them thru the internet and had gotten an advance copy of their album almost 3 months in advance.

I needed to see this band. we go in, and the show is sold out. my girlfriend at the time buys me a red Interpol shirt, one I still have and wear and possibly better than the ones they are selling now.

Calla and a local band opened.

I'm listening to the local band and I spot Daniel checking them out. he's right there in the crowd, sore thumbed only because he had the only cool looking suit among the crowd. remembering my days as a stalker of high school cheerleaders, I keep an eye on him and follow him to the bar. I get two beers and was actually going to buy him one, but he got a free Heineken from the bartender.

still a little shy, I just pass by him, him at the corner of the bar, with his elbow slouched on the bar table, I do the nodding head thing and this conversation comes out of it.

me: "hey man, you the guy in the band, right?"
Daniel: smiling, "yeah man."
me: "I hope you play good okay."
Daniel: "thanks man, I appreciate."

I leave to my friends giggling like a little girl, not spilling a drop of my beer though.

alright, the band takes the stage and just OWNS. they start out with untitled, then go on to ob1. I'm thinking to myself, dude, if they play nyc and play the same order of the cd, then this band fucking rocks. but they don't, they go on to PDA, then NYC.

look, this is the thing, I had heard specialist and song seven on boots from previous shows and I liked them.

seeing them play it live, it was just an awe-type feeling. seeing fucking Daniel sing his part on song seven was seriously man, just beautiful stuff, with his kneeling down, eyes closed thing. I don't know if him playing makes his knees buckle, or it's just something he does, but it's a damn cool little move.

there are times you know when you know you're seeing brilliance, and for me it was that cool little bass part in the middle of Specialist, where everything stops but the bass plays on. anyway, I was just floored.

WIRE, an older punk band from years ago, they played the same night at another Austin venue. This Interpol show was their after party. towards the end of the set, Paul who hadn't done much talking to the crowd, acknowledged WIRE.

Paul: Hello Wire

again, this was my first time seeing them, and I'm probably biased cause they are the best thing I had heard in a long while, but man, they just fucking played too tight, too good, and the songs were just damn amazing, great work all around.

after the show, the band kicked it with the crowd.

Paul came out first.

then Carlos, then Daniel, then Eric, then Sam.

a friend and I talked to Carlos.

I'm trying to fucking act all cool and talk about the music and shit, but Carlos didn't seem to want to chat about that, only where the next party was.

me: hey man, why didn't you guys do a lot of the background vocal parts on some of the songs?
Carlos: smiling and shrugging. then he drank some beer.

he shook my hand, very nice, very courteous, very funny.

my friend: hey man, great show, don't forget about Texas
Carlos: thanks, we won't

I see Daniel again and he was drunk.

I talk to him about everything, and I ask for his autograph.

he is quite ecstatic about their ticket stub and marvels at it kind of, he asks me if I want the other's too.

me: I don't know man, I'm shy and shit. I actually wanted to get Paul's right now, but he seems busy.
Daniel: no way man, Paul loves meeting people, c'mon, I'll get it for you, I'll get you everybody's.

at this point, Daniel takes my friend and I around the venue to every member and gets the autographs for us.

Sam at one point, while we were still with Daniel, tries to introduce a drunken Daniel to Wire, but Daniel, even though he said hi, preferred to kick it with us.

then the bar people thru everyone out.