Interpol

Among the most celebrated architects of the new wave revival that exploded at the turn of the millennium, New York's Interpol have racked up five albums in fifteen years, not always of stellar quality, but among them stands at least one of the great masterpieces of our era, that "Turn On The Bright Lights" which marked their 2002 debut, earning them the reputation as latter-day Joy Division. Tonight at Postepay Rock In Roma they deliver a set that draws fairly evenly from across their whole catalogue, leaving out only the less-than-brilliant self-titled album from 2010 - a setlist drastically trimmed on the fly compared to other dates on this tour, due to alleged physical problems affecting drummer Sam Fogarino, a turn of events that leaves the fans who turned out to support the band more than a little disappointed (did it really not occur to anyone to do three or four unplugged songs without drums?).

It's clear that a show by a band this important can't be limited to the bare minimum of just seventy minutes - a matter of respect for the paying public, especially those who made a costly trip to be there; but it must be said that those seventy minutes were nonetheless intense, packed with the well-known blend of ingredients that defines the band led by Paul Banks, purveyors of a darkwave sound tied to the past yet firmly rooted in the present, reflective yet at the same time propulsive and, at times, danceable. The imperious, Smiths-like attack of opener "Say Hello To The Angels" immediately lays out the terms, making clear that this is serious business, and in the alternation between old and new songs, the ones drawn from the recent "El Pintor" hold up perfectly well.

But it's the dips into the past that really make the crowd come alive, from the lively "Narc" (from "Antics") to the superb "PDA", pulled from the masterpiece "Bright Lights", which closes out the first part of the show. In between, special mention goes to the intensely powerful "Pioneer To The Falls" (from the underrated "Our Love To Admire"), the frenetic "Slow Hands", and above all the masterpiece "The New", the absolute high point of the evening, its sudden shifts turning it into a sort of mini-suite able to move, within the space of a few minutes, from the most delicate passages to guitars edging into noise.

Then comes the band's unconditional surrender, granting only the subdued "Leif Erikson" as an encore, sacrificing true heavyweight numbers like "Untitled" and (sigh!) "Obstacle 1", which everyone had been anxiously awaiting. Nothing more to add, except that the evening was opened in a convincing and confident fashion by Rome's own About Wayne, an effective alt-rock quintet with two albums under their belt. Tonight they earned themselves a real moment of satisfaction.

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