Interpol with Twin Tigers and The Postelles at Toad’s Place in New Haven, CT, 7/24/2010
The New Haven show might be the highlight of the current Interpol tour for me so far, though the Buffalo show and the Boston and Clifton Park shows rivaled it in various ways, too. In terms of Interpol’s performance and sound, New Haven was far and away the best. I don’t know if I’ll be able capture here what a great night is was, but I’ll try.
Paul Banks of Interpol at Toad’s Place in New Haven, CT. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.
My friends and I actually drove into New Haven the night before the show and stayed at a nearby hotel. The day of the show was very warm and we were first in line by a long stretch, so we hung out in a coffee shop near the venue for a little while. Toad’s Place is in a nice neighborhood around Yale and there were a lot of beautiful old buildings and little shops and restaurants around. The guys working there were super friendly and at one point they let us look through one of the stage doors to get a feel for the size and setup of the venue.
We again heard most of soundcheck, which on this night included “Success,” “Barricade,” “Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down,” “The Heinrich Maneuver” (boo!), “Barricade” (again, twice more), “Stella” (again), “The Lighthouse” (which I’ve still never heard live), and “Summer Well.”
Across the street from Toad’s Place, taken on my Android.
About an hour before the doors were set to open I felt particularly gross from having been out in the heat for much of the afternoon, so I drove back to our hotel and changed. I returned to the venue a new person after washing up and putting on a dress. When I got back quite a few more people had lined up. Twin Tigers were moving their gear into the venue, and Matthew came up to me and said hello. Nice to know they hadn’t forgotten me.
I’d heard that Toad’s Place is a legendary club—that heavy hitters like the Rolling Stones have played classic shows there and that a show at Toad’s Place was not one to miss. At one point I wasn’t sure I was going to make it down for this show, but I am SO GLAD that I changed my mind and went. The venue has a great feel—laid back in one way but full of energy in another. It’s a good size—it holds something like 1200 people but retains a sense of intimacy. Everyone there—from the people attending the show to the crew to the guys at the bar to the bands—seemed to be in good spirits that night.
Right when we got in the venue and took our spot at the front I noticed a woman behind me holding a nice-looking camera. I tried to ask if she had a photo pass, but I don’t think she heard me. A girl behind me said that she used to work there and that they didn’t care about cameras. That was all I needed to hear. I’d been wanting to photograph an Interpol show for ages, and my DSLR and lenses were just waiting for me a few blocks away in my car. I ran out to get them.
On my way back from my car I ran into another friend of mine from New York who was also going to the show. More happy goodness on this night!
One of my companions for these shows likes to buy cocktails—sometimes for me and sometimes for herself—but one way or another she usually makes sure that I get plenty to drink and am feeling fine. On this night she accomplished her mission with flying colors. I was in a great mood.
The Postelles at Toad’s Place. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.
By the time Twin Tigers took the stage I was on cloud nine. I had my camera, the sound at the venue was tremendous, I was surrounded by friends, I had a perfect spot up front, and I’d had a few. I took lots of pictures and made a number of silly comments during their set.
Aimee Morris of Twin Tigers. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.
Matthew Rain of Twin Tigers. Photo by Terri Wise.
Interpol’s set was electric. The lighting was probably the best I’d seen on the tour up to that point, and it might have seemed even more that way to me since I was paying particular attention as I was attempting to take pictures–and because I was feeling giddy and more than a little tipsy.
Paul Banks of Interpol. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.
I alternated between dancing and snapping away.
Daniel Kessler of Interpol. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.
They played “Barricade” live for the first time and I was thrilled—love that song. Paul was literally dripping with sweat by the end of the main set and changed his shirt for the encore. I was very pleased that they chose not to play “The Heinrich Maneuver,” even though they’d checked it.
The night’s setlist looked like this:
Success
Evil
Say Hello to the Angels
Summer Well
NARC
Lights
NYC
Mammoth
PDA
Barricade
Take You on a Cruise
Slow Hands
Obstacle 1
——–
Hands Away
Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down
Not Even Jail
As far as this tour goes, it was a great setlist for me. I much prefer “Mammoth” to “The Heinrich Maneuver,” and think it works much better live–it has a much better intensity and was a much better fit on this night. As mentioned before, I love “Hands Away” and I don’t think they’d started swapping it out for “Leif Erikson” (which I also love) at any of the shows yet. “Stella” again fit the intensity of the night. It was just right.
Daniel Kessler of Interpol at Toad’s Place. Photo by Terri Wise, www.qromag.com.
Afterwards I wandered over to the merch table to say hi to the Twin Tigers people and we gabbed for a while. We talked to Forrest about The Smiths and Stereolab, and found out that they had scored a swank hotel (Down comforters! A big flat-screen TV!) for cheap–maybe less than we were paying, while we had ended up in a fine but pretty boring place a short drive away. They wanted to hang out more, and I very much would have liked to, but my friend wanted to get back to the hotel and wasn’t sure she could find it on her own, so I had to go. Matthew made me promise to hang out after the Boston show on his birthday and I said I definitely would.
