Paul Banks
Paul Banks at the Henry Fonda Theatre, Hollywood, CA, December 5th, 2012
Dec 07, 2012
Paul Banks
Photography by Laura Studarus
History is rarely on the side of the frontman/woman looking to establish a career apart from his or her band. Sure, there are notable exceptions: i.e. Thom Yorke, Björk, and Beyoncé. But for every success there are a dozen more also-rans, whose projects come and go without much notice (I was recently reminded that Ben Gibbard put out a solo album this year. Oh fleeting memory!), or sink under comparisons to their day jobs.
Perhaps that’s why Paul Banks comes as such a welcome surprise. Starting with 2009’s Julian Plenti is… and continuing with this year’s self-titled effort, Banks as been quietly etching out a solo career that subverts—not supercedes—his day job with the use of additional textures, acoustic elements, and spoken word samples. Of course, it would be erroneous to claim that Banks solo doesn’t sound like Interpol. He’ll always possess a dapper, Goth-like swagger.
Wednesday night at the Henry Fonda Theatre, Banks put that attitude on full display, cutting through a sixteen-song set with a poised je ne sais quoi. (Wait, I do know. The word is cool—and he had it in spades.) Surprisingly eschewing the time-honored tradition of playing songs from his day job, Banks instead opted for a set equally split between his two solo offerings. Eyes closed, he performed much as he did on a recent audience-free episode of Letterman. It makes sense. Having already established a viable career, his solo work is a passion project—one that has been lucky enough to find a receptive audience.
The one gripe of the night goes to the lighting staff at the Henry Fonda, who apparently were led to believe that cool—much like Schrödinger’s cat—can only exist in an unobserved state. Next time, take a tip from Interpol and turn on the bright lights. Err…please.
Setlist:
1. Skyscraper
2. Fun That We Have
3. I’ll Sue You
4. Only If You Run
5. Young Again
6. Fly As You Might
7. No Chance Survival
8. Arise, Awake
9. Over My Shoulder
10. Lisbon
11. No Mistakes
12. The Base
13. Summertime Is Coming
14. Paid For That
15. On The Esplanade
16. Games For Days
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January 14th 2013
9:05am
I have been a Floridian for 17 years. You however are a joke, I won’t vote for Bush and I LOVE FLORIDA. Gore did win the 2000 eletcion in Florida because the Bush administration scammed the voters and many of their votes didn’t count because of faulty machines and lost ballots. His so called ‘win’ in Florida was by a small margin (around 500 votes). If justice had been done, and those bunk votes were recounted he would have lost by a large margin. Jeb tried once again to steal the vote in Florida in this eletcion by not allowing a list of felons to vote. A list where around 90% of the names were black people (whom he doesn’t have support from i.e. dem’s) and was around 96% wrong. The list misidentified those people as felons, many of whom had never even been arrested. If the people hadn’t have caught him Bush would have surely stolen the vote again. The company that compiled the list (SRI) was given a no-bid contract by Jeb’s administration in the ballpark of double digit millions for a bogus list (the list wasn’t even checked by Jeb’s people).If you cared so much about Florida why don’t you come down here and help me get this tree out of my house, and fix my roof while your at it. Yea Anonymous your really on to something (the money didn’t come straight from dubya’s pocket)
January 14th 2013
9:05am
Re: Pete FonduI just read the headline story and I must say I agree with Mr. Fondu. I sent an email to President Obama sianyg, You are a f(expletive) traitor,’ using those words You’re a traitor, you allowed foreign boots on our soil telling our military in this case the coastguard what they can and could not do, and telling us, the citizens of the United States, what we could or could not do . I am sure beyond that point Mr. Fondu and I part company but I gotta give him credit on this one.But it ain’t just Obama that has been turning the sovereignty of this country over to other countries. I am more than just a little disturbed that their has become this precedent of trotting up to the UN for permission for anything. It seems to me that it really took off with GHB and has gained momentum through Clinton, GWB and now Obama.
January 14th 2013
9:06am
#18 I heard a report on that issue; 20% of all the waveris occur in Nanzi Pelousy’s district. OThat would be more than a casual suggestion that she is attempting to buy votes with political favors. That beyotch is beyond reprehensibble; if someone in private industry did 1/2 of the crap she pulled they would be under the jail and that is where she belongs, along with about 3/4 of congress and at least 1/2 of the senate.Well;The more correct statement is that 20% of the waveris last month occurred in her district, but that doesn’t change much about the issue.Its one of the biggest reasons to keep gummint out of regulating stuff like health care. If you’ve got a big powerful lobby or rich freinds who can make political donations in order to get special treatment, you’ll get it.Its called crony capitalism.Somebody made a movie about it.