Patrick Wolf; Interpol
About a month ago, I went to Neumos to see Patrick Wolf, a young and extremely talented British songwriter.From my first experience with his music (circa 2005), it was easy to see that he generally eschewed the commonly accepted guitar and voice singer/songwriter ideals for something different, writing songs filled instead with electronic odds and ends and bolstered by an affection for string parts and a baritone ukelele. His first album, Lycanthropy was released when he was 17. It was a mixture of electronics and the fears, anxieties, and desires of youth, though a youth unlike most others, if much of the subject matter of the album is to be considered. It was a more than solid beginning, an example of a young musician that had a commedable grasp of songwriting and a future, if people bothered to pay attention. Patrick is 24 now and on touring to support the release of his third album, The Magic Position.Bishi, a very formidable British woman with a sitar, opened the show. Her music mixed what seemed to be traditional tribal rhythms, English folk, and the kind of pop music I could imagine in a European club. It was mostly these pop music elements, along with her unique vocal delivery, that made her a fantastic opening act for Wolf.After some difficulties with the microphone on a viola, Wolf’s set began, with harsh electronic noise and frail violin notes welcoming Patrick onto the stage. He was covered in gold sparkles and wearing a garish electric blue wig, a vivid and flamboyant testament to his increasingly singular style. Throughout the set, Patrick and the band - consisting of a violinist, double bassist, drummer, and keyboardist - played through songs from all three of his albums, making great work of newer songs “The Magic Position,” “Wind in the Wires,” and “Accident and Emergency,” while also greatly entertaining the crowd with older songs such as “Paris,” “Blood Beat,” and set closer “A Boy Like Me.” The crowd seemed most familiar with material from the new album, but everyone seemed open to hearing older songs, with Wolf noting halfway through the set that he wanted this concert to be more reflective. Largely due to Patrick’s extremely theatric performing style and his ability to mix more upbeat, dance-worthy songs, with slow, reflective ones, the crowd was kept engaged and interested. In one genuinely heartfelt moment, Patrick stopped playing near the end of new song “The Stars” to tell the crowd that there was a section of the song that never made it to the album, a section that he apparently very much regretted leaving out. He then continued, adding around another minute to the song, with the subject matter centering on the death of a loved one.In all, it was one of the most enjoyable concert experiences that I have had in the past year or two. The crowd seemed like a cohesive unit, everyone wanting very much to be there for the experience of hearing a very interesting and incredibly entertaining artist play through a set of songs for their benefit. This was, I think, aided by the lack of the one obligatory drunk idiot who seems to consistently ruin at least one in four shows, though that is neither here nor there. I would recommend Patrick Wolf to anyone who enjoys an artist who can mix a great sense of pop music with endearingly genuine themes and lyrics.Less than a week after Patrick Wolf managed to reassure me that all in the world of the live performance was not horribly lost, I decided to go see Interpol — with opening act Liars — at the Washington Mutual Theater.As soon as I stepped into the WaMu, I knew that the Interpol show could not possibly elicit the same sort of feelings in me that Patrick’s concert had. My main complaint was with the venue, a new and large arena-like setting with mandatory seating and no real area for standing or movement outside of the aisles between rows of seats. I know that some people don’t see concerts as an excuse to dance, but I feel that space for movement, whether it’s just nodding your head and shuffling your feet or for some sort of dance resembling an epileptic seizure, is an absolute necessity in a concert venue, no matter how popular the artist is.The crowd was also an interesting mix of people, with easily a fifth of the crowd comprised of what I would call the “over-30″ age bracket. I hadn’t really expected this sort of turnout, especially for a show where one of the bands, Liars, was much more experimental and unconventional than the other, Interpol. I was quite interested to see what the crowd would make of Liars’ rhythm heavy noise experiments, when most had probably only heard Interpol’s catchy and interesting — but, to be honest, formulaic — songs.When Liars took the stage, with the lights flashing on for each periodic strike on the drums and Angus Andrew, Liars’ vocalist, wailing unintelligibly into the microphone, it was clear that the crowd was disinterested at best. Out of the three people I was with at the concert, only I had heard Liars, so, while I managed to appreciate it to some degree, my friends sat watching with expressions mixing disbelief and dislike. And they were, by and large, not the only people in the audience simply hoping that Liars set would be short. Even being a casual fan of Liars, I felt their set eating away at my enthusiasm, though I believe they only played seven or eight songs.After Liars, the Theater guards did their best to keep the crowd in their seats, which, surprisingly, seemed to work for the most part, as people who were turned away did not put up much of a fight. though most of Interpol’s equipment had been set up already, the band seemed to take a long time to being playing. However, everyone seemed to become more energized once the band came out on stage, opening their set with “Pioneer in the Falls,” the first track from new album, Our Love to Admire. Interpol blew through other songs from Our Love, including single “The Heinrich Maneuver,” “Rest My Chemistry,” and “No I in Threesome.” Other notable songs in the set included “Slow Hands,” a single from their previous release, Antics, and “Not Even Jail,” along with older songs such as “NYC.”Even the “over-30″ block seemed to enjoy this portion of the concert, having paid the money — a seemingly lofty price of around $30 — to simply see Interpol. I will say that Interpol’s set did salvage the night for me as well, but I know that my enjoyment of Interpol will only extend to their playing a venue with a floor where I can move my limbs without having them awkwardly and painfully connect with the chair in front of or behind me. The seating-only design made me feel less engaged by the music, and there generally seemed to be little connection between the artist and the appreciative fan, though that may be more a product of the atmosphere surrounding Interpol.