Soundtracking: Interpol live in Atlantic City

SOUNDTRACKING Soundtracking is a weekly column featuring indie, alternative and all around amazing music, published weekly to Gather.com by music correspondent Laura Cushing.

This week on Soundtracking: Interpol live in Atlantic City!

  Yesterday, the Soundtracking crew took a roadtrip down to the Borgata casino to catch Interpol live.  Interpol's new CD,  Our Love to Admire, has only been out a few weeks, but is already receiving great reviews.  We were anxious to hear some of our favorite songs from the release live - and more than a little curious about the whole Atlantic City casino scene.

  As you may have read in my previous postings, we are currently working from a laptop in a hotel where we've been staying for entirely too long while our house undergoes some needed renovations. Until I get back home, my articles will be somewhat less meaty than usual.  I'm also still pretty worn out from last night!

  The first thing that we noticed on our way into town was that Atlantic City apparently has a windfarm! This is the first coastal windfarm in the country and it will provide enough energy for 2,500 homes per year. There are five wind turbines, each 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty! This is the first windfarm I've ever seen - but I certainly hope to see more of them in the future.  Windfarms are a viable source for clean, efficient energy and I'm very proud that our state has one! 

  The Borgata was visible as an imposing shiny building on the horizon. As we drove towards it, we saw a series of billboards advertising the coming of a new competitor. Though some of them were pretty annoyingly smug , the last one amused me enough to remember it.  It read  'Do you know what this town really needs? Another casino.' Somehow I doubt that this is what Atlantic City really needs, but it made me laugh. It didn't, however, make me remember the name of the new casino-to-be. Sorry, marketing guys.

  We paid five dollars to valet the car so I didn't have to deal with the garage - though we later found out that we were supposed to pay when picking our car up, not when dropping it off. The atendant who took our car was more than happy to take our fiver without explaining this, however. We found it amusing to see our ol' Lucky LeSabre (a 1999 Buick) waiting in line with all the fancy cars to be parked. Once inside, I couldn't believe how opulent and excessive the Borgata was. Why is it that we can have buildings like this with gold-trimmed shiny everything, yet we can't have health care in our country? I can't decide whether I'm sick or impressed. We paid thirty dollars each to eat at a buffet which contained more food than I'd ever seen in one place in my entire life.  We had steak, prime rib, chicken and all sorts of vegetables - then went back for a plate of Chinese food before having a huge dessert plate including gelato. 

  Once done eating, we picked up our tickets and started looking for the rest of our party. In addition to me and Austin (husband/cameraman), the Soundtracking crew now includes Brian, our video guy. He's the one who converts the videos we shoot to a format that's small enough to fit on the internets and sites like YouTube and MySpace without looking really bad in the process.  Brian brought his girlfriend Danielle who is an Interpol fan - she came all the way down from Long Island to see the show. After playing a bit of phone tag, we met up with them and made our way in to the venue - a fairly decent sized place called The Music Box located right next to the buffet. Despite what we were told when visiting the website (that non-pro cameras were okay), they announced that there would be NO cameras during the show. 

We had good seats, so we figured that we could try to get in a few camera shots anyhow. And so, we proceeded to stealthily take some pictures. During the opening act, a band from New York named Calla, the security wasn't so bad.

 Calla made us a little dizzy - the lead singer traveled around the stage in a circular pattern that we were sure meant that he was going to fall over any minute. The music wasn't bad, though we were slightly distracted by trying to figure out where the sounds of the synth was coming from -  behind the area we couldn't see from our viewpoint? Pre-recorded? All in our heads? It was a true mystery.  Other than that little bit of distraction, however - we enjoyed the opener well enough. They rocked out for about 45 minutes.

 Between the bands, there was an intermission - but instead of breaking for beer like most people seemed to be doing - I broke out my Nintendo DS and the Soundtracking crew played some Tetris. Brian lamented the fact that on the Tetris Worlds game, the UP button does not, in fact, rotate the piece - rather drops it straight down like a lead brick. Aus showed off his mad gaming skills, and demonstrated the amazing function of piece storage.

 As Interpol took the stage, security became stricter, moving their way through the crowds to tell people to knock the photography off or else, threatening people with cameras and cameraphones alike. We resorted to drawing stick figure drawings of the concert - which were actually pretty awesome, really. Unfortunately, today, we can't find the pictures in order to show you here. But let us just say that they were the coolest stick people drawings you can imagine.  

Interpol was the best-dressed rockband I have ever seen, all attired in suits and ties and looking elegant as they took the stage amid a flood of lights and smoke.  They played an assortment of tunes from their new album, as well as some old favorites.  They had a ton of energy - which was very admirable, considering how long they've been on the road.  They gave the performance everything they had, and it showed.  We managed to get in a few somewhat blurry shots while dodging the security guys. If you weren't a fan of Interpol coming into this room, clearly you were going to be when you left. Even if you didn't know the words to these songs, you'd feel them and learn your way.

  The crowd was spectacularly diverse - tattooed punks, teen girls, and grandparents were all represented here.  When the light displays swirled and the music thrummed through the speakers, all these different people united as one.  Despite the comfort of the seats, they were on their feet, cheering and singing along. Behind me (precariously close to my hair) a boy lit his Zippo and held it aloft. A few rows down, a girl stretched her hand towards the stage as if she might touch the music.  This was rock and roll as it was meant to be - loud, beautiful, and touching a common chord within us all.

  After the show, the Soundtracking crew had a snack at another fairly overpriced restaurant within the casino. We reflected on the music, the stick figures, the casino and the column. On our way out of the place, we spotted an honest-to-goodness shoe-shine chair, and hopped up to take a few last pictures before parting ways. 

On our way out, we stopped to talk with the lead singer of Interpol, heading out of Starbucks with a coffee. Offstage, the rockstar persona is gone and Paul Banks is a genial, soft-spoken man who tells us he does have time for a picture, but he would prefer to take it himself. We scrunch close enough that we both fit in the shot, and he holds it out at arm's length, fiddling with the button a bit as the flash wouldn't flash the first time. With a thank-you, we are on our way out, and he is joining the rest of his band who are already on the casino floor. 

As we drove home, we considered the changeable nature of things and how nights like this one define us.  

Sountracking goes live!
Through the summer and fall, Soundtracking will be attending concerts and bringing you live photography, film, and footage. Here's a brief list of who and what we plan to see - more dates will likely be added:

No More Kings in Hoboken, NJ - filmed on 6/22
Ozma in Asbury Park, NJ- filmed on 6/24
Interpol in Atlantic City, NJ - 7/20 -  article
Wolf Parade in Philly - 8/20
Rilo Kiley in Philly -  9/25
Blue October/Yellowcard/Ozma in NJ and Philly - Sept 28 / Oct 1st

Any suggestions for what we should go see? Let us know in a comment!

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CDs and promotional materials, interview and/or review requests can be sent to:

Soundtracking
PO Box 141  Newtonville, NJ 08346-0141

Email: Soundtracking@labarc.com   / AIM: Lab Arc Designs

		Laura Cushing, Music Correspondent  - Soundtracking
	Laura's column, 'Soundtracking' is published every Saturday in Gather Essentials:Music. Soundtracking is your guide to indie, alternative, and overall amazing music -- featuring musician interviews, CD reviews, MP3 mixes, and discussions. Laura Cushing is a 37 year old writer from the New Jersey Pines. In addition to music journalism, she writes fiction and poetry. Keep up with Laura's music series by joining her network, or subscribing to her content.