Recap Julian Plenti at the Metro

Julian Plenti—a.k.a. Paul Banks, singer-guitarist of Interpol—had a couple of things going against his new band’s Chicago debut right from the start: First off, his main competition for audience was a sold-out Pixies show at the Aragon—that’s 4,500 potential customers all tied up. Second, there seems to be a hesitancy to identify Plenti as Banks, which probably has something to do with not wanting to interfere with the recording/touring cycle of his main band. Clearly, the diehards know what they’re in for, but there were only enough of those to fill about half of Metro on Saturday night.

That’s a shame, because if the debut Julian Plenti disc, Julian Plenti Is… Skyscraper had come out with the name “Interpol” on the cover, nobody would have blinked. Deep voice and odd lyrics are front-and-center of whatever he does, and the disc isn’t different enough from Interpol for the name change to make any sense.

Well, there was one big difference: The fashionistas of Interpol were replaced here by a ragtag bunch that appear to have been picked up at Banks’ corner bar. No flash, no suits, and no attitude—which was both good and band. The guitar player stuck out like a cheesy thumb in his sleeves-cut-off T-shirt and with his ridiculous rock-guy dancing. He wanted to be in Ratt or maybe .38 Special, and he flailed around the stage, threw devil horns, and made rock faces—while the rest of the band (guitar, bass, cello, drums) didn’t really move at all. It was distracting.

But close your eyes and this was more or less an Interpol show, but without Interpol songs. Banks’ band had to flesh out the largely great Skyscraper album with a couple of instrumentals and a couple of covers (Pixies’ “Into The White” and America’s “Horse With No Name”) to reach an hour’s playing time, but it only rarely seemed forced. Some of the album’s tracks are among Banks’ best, including “Only If You Run,” which might’ve been a hit if Skyscraper had an Interpol-sized marketing push.

But it wasn’t to be, and that’s fine. Banks was clearly having fun, and there’s nothing wrong with hearing that inimitable baritone for an hour. When he returns with Interpol, five times as many people will show up, but they won’t necessarily get a better show than this one.