Rock the Bloc Party

The party was at The Forum in Kentish Town, and with the travel arrangements for such a reasonably short journey requiring a level of insight worthy of a military strategist, all public transport was foregone for the sake of driving door-to-door. Put it this way; more than 2 hours to travel 40 miles is a bit too slow for anyone, don't ya think?

Needless to say the pre-gig arrangements were a mini adventure in themselves involving exploding bottles of water, crap directions from a "trusted" brand-name source, congestion charging, fresh panini, dodging the wheel-clampers & tow-trucks, coping with the "very limited parking" and, as per usual, a dose of good luck and great timing.

Oliver showed up in time for us to grab a decent pint, warm up from the freezing temperatures and head on down to the party :D



The first support was OK; don't know who they were, but the lead singer looked just like footballer John Harley (John Harley, John Harley) Then Chromeo came on, a 3-piece '80s style funk outfit from the States sounding like Cameo... funky and bassy.

But the cream of the night's performances came from some guys called Bloc Party.

The crowd was abuzz with expectation, this was the band's first album tour. The lighting was sharp, there was plenty of dry ice (or was that just tons of smoke) and the atmosphere was good...

The thing that initially freaked me out :D was Kele Okereke's T_shirt; he had a Calico Jack Skull & Cutlass T-shirt. Funny as that's my avatar over at DP forums ;)

But what a band... I think they were looking forward to this as much as we were. The main man came across with good attitude, not phased at all by the attention they're getting and very down to earth too.

Believe me, they're better live than on the LP - plenty of depth and warmth to the guitar sounds. I have to admit that on a number of ocassions the riffing was so good I thought I was in a Hawkwind concert, it was pretty psychedellic. And that Russell Lissack can really make a guitar scream - the way he played that axe on "She's Hearing Voices" just blew me away.

The only thing missing was the vocal harmonies, like on "Modern Love" but that didn't detract from the experience at all. For a four-piece they make all the right noises.

Bloddy marvellous :D