Interpol, O2 Brixton Academy, review

They're not likely to reclaim the alt-rock agenda any time soon

Brad Truax of Interpol performs on stage (Getty Images)

Yes, they are still going.

Although NYC's glossy goths have been in a glacial, black-clad hiatus for three years, there are still many lovers of atmospherics and angst who worship as fervently at their altar as the height of their mid-noughties power, and they’re out in force tonight.

Exuberant indie-rock pups Circa Waves, rough-edged Britrock duo Royal Blood and Temples – whose polished-Nuggets psychedelic pastiche is more bearable live, but then isn't everything – can only be mere footmen to their returning melancholic majesties.

And yet Interpol, when they arrive to a low-lit, ice-blue stage, are always less gloomy than you remembered them, Banks' goatish dolour offset by racing, taut rhythms and spiky guitars.

The likes of their best track, ‘Evil’, are irresistibly dancey as well as doomy, though their less arresting tend very much to a po-faced formula.

The three new songs – the darkly romantic ‘My Desire’, ‘Anywhere’ with its brightly jagged guitar work and the relatively upbeat and twinkly ‘All The Rage Back Home’ – are all of a high quality, but suggest they’re not messing with the magic, or indeed likely to reclaim the alt-rock agenda any time soon.

But their fans will be happy. Well, y’know, sorta sad-happy.