From Ass Whippin' to Whippin' Ass

After that Centro-matic show I went to a while back I promised myself I'd go see more live music. A few weeks ago I was checking Interpol's tour schedule and saw they were playing in Raleigh Sunday night. It sounded great, but I knew it would be a long day if I went. The Panther's home opener was also this past Sunday and that means waking up early, getting the dog taken care of, getting food together and making it uptown by 10 a.m. to start grilling and beer drinking. I thought it'd be too much, but I remembered the promise I made to myself. I'm not going to be 28 forever and a lot of bands I really like evidently hate Charlotte so they play in places like Raleigh and Winston Salem and I have to make those trips. I'm damned glad I went up there Sunday. After the ass whippin' the Texans put on the Panthers, The Lady and I ducked into the Gin Mill for one beverage and headed to her house to drop her off. She made me a sandwich and I hit the road. I finally arrived at the Disco Rodeo(formerly The Ritz and The Longbranch) about 9:00. There was a huge crowd which struck me weird because I didn't realize so many people in North Carolina knew who Interpol was. Then I realized most of them were college kids from one of a dozen or so universities in and around Raleigh making me one of the older folks in the crowd. Most of those college kids were drinking Tecate and Modelo. Weird. I looked out of place with my two $4 PBR cans. Interpol came on around 9:30 and I had no clue what they looked like before. They were all wearing suits or ties. I guess I was expecting t-shirts but I reckon it worked for them. They were as good as I hoped they'd be. More importantly, they were LOUD! I hate going to shows where they could easily double the volume and still use some more gain. Sunday the mix was right.



The band closed with Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down(bottom video) and PDA(top video.) They were great with the exception of the guitar player singing a little riff at the end of PDA. Dude didn't sing a word all night and came in at least a step and a half flat. It was bad. Other than that, they were extremely tight. I got home around 2 a.m. It was well worth the long assed day.