Magazine

Reviews: Nine Inch Nails, Interpol


14/ 7/2005

Outside the temperature is sweltering; Greenwich Solero Time.

But, in the Apollo, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor is gamely ploughing his way through an hour's worth of the Dark Side.

And when his band launch into the timeless electro-snarl of Closer and the relentless Starf*****s Inc, you feel that Trent has every reason to be, er, cheerful.

Performing in front of flashing stripped lightning, NIN hit the ground running with Wish and then rattle 'em out. It's taken six years for them to hop back on the album, the excellent frenzied pop-barnstormer The Hand That Feeds - thunders along, essentially the gilded truffle in the pig-trough of With Teeth.

A dramatic end of (the famously Johnny Cash-covered) Hurt elicits a sing-along, while set-closer, Head Like A Hole, has the sell-out crowd mock- bowing before them. For NIN, the sun's shining after all.

Gary Ryan

INTERPOL'S appeal, in the absence of a goth revival period, may be an enduring mystery, but if they are to be greeted like messiahs in any city, it is unsurprising that it is Manchester.

For the most part, Interpol are a mere tickle away from being a Joy Division tribute band.

But they also raid from some of the scene's best - including The Cure and Bauhaus - and reconstruct sounds last heard live during the 1980s in an contemporary and skilful way.

In little under an hour, debut album Turn On The Bright Lights and weaker follow-up, Antics, are given generous outings.

Openers Next Exit, Slow Hands and Narc hit the spot, and despite the run of largely maudlin tunes that follows, the crowd's enthusiasm never ebbs. Moody strip lighting casts the band in blue, red and white silhouette, and singer Paul Banks - vocally, part Ian Curtis, part Papa Lazarou - maintains his long-earned reputation for sparing banter.

As the encore kicks in, the moshpit finds its stride and bounces enthusiastically to 2002 masterpieces Untitled and Obstacle 1.

Sarah Walters


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