Bloc Party - The Forum - 30th September 2008

On the 21st of August this year Bloc Party released their third album 'Intimacy', only three days after it was announced, exclusively via their website. It is, for the most part, a clear step away from the sound that made them popular on their first two albums and certainly a very ambitious project for the band. Tonight is the first home town show they have played since releasing the album and without doubt an exciting prospect for them, as it is the first real chance they will get to see how their new songs will be received in the live arena.

I'd definitely give a penny for their thoughts on how the gig went from their perspective. Here was mine.

Kicking off the night with a new song, namely the clunker that is 'Halo' from 'Intimacy' was definitely a false start. This was not much improved by the atrocious sound levels that reduced it to not much more than a mesh of noise. Shortly followed by songs from their previous two albums in 'Hunting For Witches' and 'Positive Tension' the game was raised a little but these two regular crowd pleasers were still restrained by the sound quality, although the majority of the members of the audience seemed not to care and continued to have a good time.

Any good done by this double header was soon canceled out by the second new song of the night 'Talons'. This is to be Bloc Party's next single, but this performance was not a good advertisement for it. The sound levels seemed to reach a new low at this point, rendering the song almost unrecognisable but the crowd proceeded to bounce along to this jumble of muck regardless.

For me the performance really got going with the next track, and my personal favourite from the new album; 'Signs'. The first slow song of the night and the first new song that the crowd actually seemed to recognise and be interested in. A beautiful vocal from Kele Okereke over the simple xylophone line played by bassist Gordon Moakes combined to make a rousing performance of the poignant ballad.

This was built upon by an excellent double header of old crowd favourites 'Song For Clay' and 'Banquet', the former running straight into the latter without a moment to catch your breath. Now the gig was really going.

Unfortunately not for long. Once again the momentum gained was rapidly diminished as another new song was played, this time the culprit was 'Better Than Heaven', which is one of my personal favourites from the new album, but it's safe to say it didn't translate to the live stage very well. This saw a record number of people heading to the bar and a new low for the night. Even Okereke didn't seem to believe in the performance. Whereas normally he plays up very well to the audience and gets them going, during this song he constantly looked down or away from the crowd.

Following hotluy on the heels of 'Better Than Heaven' were the harsh tones of latest single 'Mercury', which served another puncture to this rapidly deflating performance. Sampled vocals that were audibly out of time made this song that is so far removed from their older material hard to bear. After the song finished there were audible boos amongst the lukewarm cheers.

They finished out the set with four older songs which appeased the crowd and got them active and dancing once more. These included a beautiful performance of 'This Modern Love' and a spirited rendition of 'Like Eating Glass'. This is what the majority of the crowd had paid to see. But the pattern of the night continued, so just as the energy was reaching its peak it plummeted once more as they left the stage for what seemed like a ridiculously long period of time.

Finally they returned to the stage to play the opening track from their latest album, 'Ares'. Unfortunately the live version still includes the asinine lyrics such as "We dance to the sound of sirens". I may dislike the song, but I can't deny that it got the crowd going again instantly. Channelling the energy of Pendulum, Bloc Party were a different kind of beast during this bass-heavy, dance infused song. The rave vibes continued with a performance of hit single 'Flux' (with a brief detour at 'Price of Gas'). The crowd was visibly confused when Okereke sung the lyrics to Prince's 'I Would Die 4 U' over the start of Flux, and were audibly relieved when the actual song kicked in. They were probably just glad that it wasn't another new song.

The night finished predictably with Bloc Party's classic single 'Helicopter'. An unsurprising end to an average encore. After this the house lights came up and the music came on, all the regular signs that the gig is over.

But it wasn't.

Half the crowd had probably already left the building by the time Bloc Party surprisingly returned to the stage for a second encore. Okereke thanked the crowd and offered that they would play whatever was shouted into the microphone first. He then proceeded to throw the microphone into the crowd. After a mad scuffle the reply came back in a resounding chant form "Skeleton! Skeleton!" ('Skeleton' is an old b-side that has become a fan favourite and has been rarely played, but the times it has have gone down it Bloc Party fan folk-lore.)

"We haven't played this for a while," Okereke stated defensively before starting. He needn't have worried the band churned out a fantastic performance of the song that saw the hard-core fans down the front going more insane than at any other point in the night. To say they redeemed themselves in my eyes is an understatement.

Overall it was a strange night, full of highs and lows. It may seem like the new songs are at fault for the lows but I think it was the crowd reaction towards them that was more to blame. Overall Bloc Party are still a solid live band, the new songs are going to need time to grow into fan favourites, and a lot of repeated plays to make them succesful in a live situation. But until then they still have their old songs to lean back on, and that alone is just about worth the price of the ticket.

Rating: 6.8/10
Best Part: The unexpected return to the stage and even more unexpected performance of 'Skeleton'.

I'm sure you've all heard of Bloc Party, but here are some of my favourite new songs and b-sides that you may not have heard that you can download:

'Skeleton' (b-side)
'Signs' (from 'Intimacy')
'Better Than Heaven' (from 'Intimacy')
'Selfish Son' (b-side)
'England' (b-side)