A skateboard trick landed with a deadpan joke—that's how Tony Hawk warmed up the crowd for Interpol. On the night of August 15, before Interpol took the stage at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park in San Diego, the skateboarding legend personally walked out to introduce the band, leaving the crowd with one line: "I won't stop skateboarding until Interpol stops touring."
Hawk said he'd been listening to Interpol since their debut album Turn On the Bright Lights dropped in 2002. Their paths actually crossed in 2004, when both appeared on The Jay Leno Show the same night, with his skate ramp set up right behind the studio. "I watched them rehearse 'Slow Hands,' and they watched me do slow hand plants." He described the parallel journeys they've taken over the years: "Neither of us ever gave up on what we love doing."
Interpol later shared the clip of the introduction on Instagram, captioning it: "From Leno in 2004 to now, thanks for riding along with us, @tonyhawk." Hawk replied in the comments: "My wife says the 'slow handplants' joke is corny, but I think dad jokes are the pinnacle of comedy."
Interpol's US tour rolls on, with a show in Las Vegas on August 16 before heading to London on August 23 for Deftones' Outbreak Fest, sharing the bill with IDLES, Amyl & The Sniffers, JPEGMAFIA, and Deafheaven, among others. The band signed with Partisan Records earlier this year and will later join Bloc Party for a joint UK and European tour, including back-to-back nights at London's Olympia on December 4 and 5.
Ahead of this run of shows, Interpol is set to release their ninth album, This Mirror Weighs A Ton, via Partisan Records on August 28. The title track, along with "See Out Loud" and "Iron City," have already been released. Frontman Paul Banks told NME that "Iron City" is "a conversation between a human narrator and an AI that's set to take over the future." Asked whether he's worried about AI replacing human creativity, he responded: "No. AI can only replace art based on what we've already made—without new material to feed it, it'll just degrade into imitation, with no real connection to actual human experience." The album also includes "Wings On Fire," which has already been performed live, and which Banks describes as "a fun bit of nonsense."
