Interpol, Shepherds Bush Empire, London

Here to put a smile on your face are the mighty Interpol. Well maybe not a smile, more like a wonderous and amazed gaping mouth, occasionally morphing into a frown of deep deep concentration on the brilliant music that is penetrating your ear.

Interpol are an amazing live band. They have the ability to pull off stupid rock moves (thank you Carlos D), humble silences, and strong, steady yet effortlessly cool dance moves (everyone salute Daniel Kessler please). All the while they play their songs so tightly and powerfully it would have made you fall over had the rest of the crowd not held you up.

However they can do better than this. Shepherd’s Bush Empire is a fairly average venue and on this night the sound was pretty appalling. It also didn’t help that there were about 100 football hooligans shouting ‘DUNUNUNUNUNUNUNUNUN DUNUNUNUNUN YOU ASKED MEEH’ obviously not knowing the words and obviously thinking that the crowd wanted to hear them yelling/’singing’ off tune in my ear instead of Paul Banks’ most amazing singing in the world (well, in comparison).

Even so, you can’t blame the band for the crap sound and some of their fans that think you can mosh to ‘Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down’. Despite all this they were fantastic. The highlight of the night being the brilliant song ‘The Specialist’, an extra on some versions of their album, ‘Turn on the Bright Lights’, and quite possibly their best song.

Just think though, they could have been perfect.