Bloc Party

Seventy quid for a ticket off ebay? Thus is the immortal power of the fan club tour. The night before saw The Futureheads giving a little back to the dedicated, following suit from Razorlight doing the same thing a month before. Now it’s Bloc Party’s turn to squeeze as many people as they can into the tiny Rescue Rooms, testing out new material and people’s ability to suck in their stomachs to make room for others.

It may feel like you’ve been packed into the guts of a Yeti, but being in the room affords people a certain status. Yes! We are Bloc Party fans! Yes! We are worthy! Yes! All my mates are jealous!

It’s hard for anyone to get excited for support act Komakino, such is the anticipation for East London’s finest, but the atmosphere is buoyant no less and the band sail through their set at a pace to suggest that even they’d rather be watching the headliners.

‘Real’ fans, tiny venue, new material, one-off show, yada yada… of course the place is going to riot when the confidently elevated Kele Okereke leads his troupe out onto the stage to kick of the evenings proceedings.

After newie ‘Waiting For The 7.18’, the band toss out usual end-of-set hopefuls ‘Banquet’ and ‘This Modern Love’ with the carefree abandon that a tour such as this affords. They could, in all honesty, spend an hour rubbing their fingers round the rims of glasses of water and people would still wail in delight.

A selection of new songs with titles like ‘Hunting For Witches’, ‘Uniform’ and the promising ‘Atonement’ are thrown in and devoured by the willing crowd. Drummer Matt Tongs’ rhythms indicate a marked progression to the band’s sound, whilst still staying firmly routed in the Bloc Party aura of old.

They are jovial and in good spirits, keeping up banter between the songs, making the whole thing more personal. ‘If you’re going to cut loose, now’s your chance’, foreshadows Kele before the entire venue gets spun up in the rotary blades of ‘Helicopter’.

Bloc Party are still as wonderful as ever and a testament of contemporary music’s prowess. As they round off the show with ‘Little Thoughts’, it becomes clear that they’re an invaluable asset to the world of music and beyond.

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.