Pitchfork

Photos by Sanchez and Kitahara

It was a poorly kept secret: all of Liars, half of Interpol, and an assortment of others (including Deerhunter's Bradford Cox) crowded the stage at Chicago's tiny Empty Bottle club last night following the Interpol/Liars proper show at the Aragon Ballroom. Billed as "Reefer Duberland", the stoner-y, echoey connotations of their adoptive one-off name somehow proved a lot closer to what we lucky few got than a typical outing from two brooding, dingy rock bands.

Following a rushed, drained-looking, but determined load-in, the band assembled on the stage. Liars took the prominent positions front and center with Paul Banks crouched in a corner stage left. He appeared calm, if apprehensive. The music began around 12:30 a.m., emerging from the chaos so abruptly the audience hardly even noticed. Things settled into a dubby, rubbery reggae bop, with Liars frontman Angus Andrew coaxing echo from contraptions on the floor. Had it not been for him-- and Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino's troubled groove-- there'd be a comment here about sounding like a jam band.

Five minutes in, it seemed to dawn on people-- message board trollers and in-the-know scenemakers alike-- that this, and not a parade through "Slow Hands" and "Stella"-- might actually be the set they came to see. Most audience members looked restless, and the crowd became noticeably thinner with each passing thump. And nothing perplexes an already prickly crowd like Bradford Cox-- in town to open a Yo La Tengo show as Atlas Sound-- who left his perch at the side of the stage to take the microphone and, through Andrew's manipulations, essentially MC the entirety of the rest of the night.



The backdrop changed around 12:45, becoming a bit more insistent, and Banks attempted a soft, snaky riff that didn't go too far. As the beat became further disco-fied, Bradford and Angus yelped at each other. That dropped off into echo, with Fogarino and Liars' Aaron Hemphill locking in while everyone else filled empty space. That was the dominant impression of the night, really: those two were truly conversing, while the rest of the band seemed to be largely minding their own (or Bradford's) business. Banks, seeming a bit lost, at one point wailed on the whammy bar for a while. He looked stern while doing it.

By one a.m., the club was half-empty. The band soldiered on into a steady 4/4, with Bradford repeating short phrases and Angus rendering them incomprehensible through his bank of toys. The lanky Aussie briefly reared his head for a moment, one of the few times even a tall dude like me could see him. The music swelled, became choppy, bleating: with the merry-go-round vocals and the bursts of sound, the effect was similar to Animal Collective's live thing, of which Bradford, at least, is a fan.

Banks eventually found some confidence and took momentary control, and his jabby, metallic, minor key riff was the most Interpol-like thing of the night. Matched with the faraway chant Angus seemingly pulled from nowhere, it was the first point the two bands' styles genuinely fit together, and doubtless the highlight of the set. Things kept swinging as sound turned ever Liars-y, with the drums thudding, and Angus and Bradford shooting pennywhistle noises at each other.



Around 1:20, things quieted, and Fogarino cut through the din with an almost New Jack Swing (or "House Clouds") drumbeat. The bass throbbed, and Banks managed an atmospheric spy flick guitar riff that proved his finest improvisation of the night. The whole thing swelled, then petered out around 1:30. What was left of the crowd seemed unsure whether they'd seen everything, but when the bouncer started ushering folks outside, they got the message: whatever that was, that was it.



This was, of course, close to what I wanted when I heard about the show: muscular squalls and gurgling new wave, some marriage of Interpol's pop tendencies and Liars' freaky ones. But instead of a mutual elevation of both sounds, they gave a compromise: Liars' quiet, terse side tempered by Interpol's steady, pretty dirge. Liars are a great opening band for Interpol, but the two acts really don't share a lot: Liars-- and Bradford Cox-- are students of noise and improv, but Interpol are structuralists, and Banks at least seemed uncomfortable with anything beyond the melody.

I'm sure a lot of folks in attendance looking for "Obstacle 1" thought it was pure formless cacophony, but it would've been so much better had that been true. Instead, it was safe, and quiet, and often a bit dull. All involved kept reaching for something that, for whatever reason, never came.

Liars:

10-12 Minneapolis, MN - State Theatre *
10-14 Denver, CO - Fillmore *
10-15 Salt Lake City, UT - McKay Center *
10-16 Boise, ID - Big Easy *
10-18 Seattle, WA - WaMu Theater *
10-19 Portland, OR - Memorial Coliseum *
10-20 San Francisco, CA - Bill Graham Civic Auditorium *
10-22 Las Vegas, NV - The Joint @ Hard Rock Hotel *
10-23 Los Angeles, CA - The Forum *
10-30 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Melkweg
10-31 Rotterdam, Netherlands - Waterfront
11-01 Brussels, Belgium - Botanique
11-02 London, England - Forum (ATP Release the Bats) ^
11-03 Brighton, England - Barfly
11-05 Copenhagen, Denmark - Loppen
11-06 Malmo, Sweden - Debaser
11-07 Oslo, Norway - John Dee
11-08 Stockholm, Sweden - Debaser
11-09 Gothenberg, Sweden - Pusterviksbaren
11-11 Leipzig, Germany - Ut Connewitz
11-14 Bologna, Italy - Estragon
11-15 Rome, Italy - Init
11-16 Perugia, Italy - Feedback
11-17 Verona, Italy - Interzona
11-18 Milan, Italy - Transilvania
11-19 Lausanne, France - La Romandie
11-21 Lyon, France - Grrrnd Zero
11-22 Clermont-Ferrand, France - La Cooperative de Mai
11-23 Bordeaux, France - Krakatoa
11-24 Angers, France - Le Chabada
11-25 Kortrijk, Belgium - De Kreun
11-27 Paris, France - Maroquinerie
11-28 Le Havre, France - Electric Cabaret
11-29 Bristol, England - Thekla
11-30 Nottingham, England - Rescue Rooms
12-01 Manchester, England - Warehouse Project
12-04 Dublin, Ireland - Whelan's
12-06 Glasgow, Scotland - Stereo
12-07 Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Club

* with Interpol
^ with Deerhoof, Deerhunter, Black Lips, Fuck Buttons

Interpol:

10-27 Santa Fe, Mexico - Manifest Festival
11-07 Lisbon, Portugal - Coliseum *
11-08 Madrid, Spain - La Riviera *
11-09 Barcelona, Spain - Razzmatazz *
11-11 Lyon, France - Transbordeur *
11-12 Florence, Italy - Sachhall *
11-13 Milan, Italy - Alcatraz *
11-15 Zurich, Switzerland - Volkshaus *
11-16 Munich, Germany - Tonhalle *
11-17 Berlin, Germany - Columbiahalle *
11-19 Cologne, Germany - Palladium *
11-20 Tilburg, Netherlands - O13 *
11-21 Paris, France - Zenith *
11-23 Brussels, Belgium - Forest National *
11-24 Hamburg, Germany - Docks *
11-26 Lille, France - Aeronef *
11-28 Blackpool, England - Empress Ballroom
11-29 London, England - Alexandra Palace
11-30 London, England - Alexandra Palace
12-02 Dublin, Ireland - RDS Main Hall
12-04 Newcastle, England - Carling Academy

* with Blonde Redhead

Deerhunter:

10-17 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom (CMJ) !
10-18 New York, NY - Rebel (Heist Party) (CMJ)
10-19 New York, NY - Fader Sideshow (Atlas Sound show) (CMJ)
10-22 Brooklyn, NY - Shangri La
10-25 Graz, Austria - Dom im Berg (Elevate Festival)
10-26 Düdingen, Switzerland - Bad Bonn
10-27 St. Gallen, Switzerland - Palace <
10-28 Basel, Switzerland - Kaserne <
10-30 Brussels, Belgium - Recyclart
10-31 Paris, France - La Maroquinerie
11-01 Castellón de la Plana, Spain - Tanned Tin Festival
11-02 London, England - The Forum (ATP Presents Release the Bats) *
11-03 Leeds, England - The Faversham (Nasty Fest VIII) *
11-04 Glasgow, Scotland - ABC2
11-05 Dublin, Ireland - Whelan's >
11-06 Nottingham, England - Liars Club
11-07 Manchester, England - Cafe Saki
11-08 Prague, Czech Republic - Archa Theatre
11-09 Groningen, Netherlands - Vera Club
11-10 Utrecht, Netherlands - Tivoli &
11-12 Copenhagen, Denmark - Loppen
11-13 Malmo, Sweden - Debaser
11-14 Oslo, Norway - Garage
11-15 Stockholm, Sweden - Debaser Slussen
11-16 Gothenburg, Sweden - Slippery People at Pusterviksbaren
11-17 Aarhus, Denmark - VoxHall
11-18 Dresden, Germany - Scheune
11-19 Leipzig, Germany - UT Connewitz
11-30 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse *
12-05 Athens, GA - Georgia Theatre *
12-08 Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Club

! with No Age, Dan Deacon, White Williams, Ponytail
# with Mika Miko
< with Frog Eyes
* with Black Lips
> with YACHT
& with Dirty Projectors