Interpol is currently on their world tour celebrating the 20th Anniversary of their sophomore album Antics, originally released in September of 2004. Besides New York City, Chicago is the only other city on this tour that they are hosting multiple nights. I was able to attend Night 2 at the Salt Shed with a sold out crowd.

Opening both nights was San Francisco’s black metal innovators, Deafheaven. The raw power of Deafheaven’s fast picked and epic song lengths seem almost the exact opposite of Interpol’s buttoned up post-punk. Deafheaven frontman George Clarke touts a sour scream that may be off putting if you only came here to dance casually to Antics . The crowd proved to have strong pockets of Deafheaven fans though. I even spotted a few fans donning traditional black metal
corpse paint.

Interpol fans also showed up in their best dress too, taking cues from the band's dapper on stage attire. I saw more than one Antics inspired outfit with a red,black and white color scheme. From the moment the lights went out the packed Salt Shed was engaged with Interpol. The set began with a full playthrough of Antics. Playthrough shows can sometimes feel like you’re wading through filler to see one or two songs. I am happy to report it was all killer from Next Exit to A Time to Be Small; Interpol sounded tight and even worked a few extended outros to keep the playthrough exciting. The most well known song from Antics,(and their most streamed on Apple Music) is Evil, it’s a jarring second song that went off well, even if it was burned early in
favor of the in-sequence playthrough. With Evil out of the way, Antics came to life just like if you had it in your headphones. Songs like the carpe-diem tinged Not Even Jail brought cathartic sing-alongs. Head nods pulsed through the crowd during Public Pervert. Take You On A Cruise notably brought an affecting performance with Daniel Kessler’s trance inducing guitar, showing it's not all about the big poppy tunes you know.

The light show and the performances from the Interpol members were also top-notch. I was captivated by the crazy-legged Kessler who waltzes around the stage like Fred Astaire without missing a beat. Counter to Kessler’s elegant display, singer Paul Banks remained sturdy like a statue at the mic. Banks doesn't have to move to be the coolest guy in the room. His efficient strums and impenetrable sunglasses, unmistakably cool. Even as a stage tech fixed a problem at Bank’s feet you couldn’t really tell if he noticed or even cared that something wasn’t working properly.

After wrapping up Antics, Interpol took a brief intermission before rolling into a second set of non-Antics songs to round out the night. A washy ambient track played as the audience anticipated Interpol’s return. The intermission ended when the band returned with the Our Love To Admire standout, Rest My Chemistry. Not surprisingly, the Turn on the Bright Lights songs received some of the biggest responses of the night. The biggest reaction came at the end of the main set with crowd-favorite Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down. This was the song where most cell phone cameras went in the air, including my own, to catch Bank’s desperate cries for the song’s titular character “Stella! / oh, Stella!”. It was a best case scenario to be able to enjoy Antics in full 20 years on. The cherry on top was re-energizing with a secondset of bangers.

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Live Review: Interpol Celebrates Antics 20th Anniversary in Chicago IL, at the Salt Shed on November 19th, photo by Blake Correll