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Live Review: Bloc Party @ Rock City

Alex Duke

Alex Duke reviews Bloc Party's take on Nottingham's Rock City.


Bloc Party at Rock City. London rockers prove their class, but Alpha Games' tracks get fewer compliments.


Bloc Party are a staple of British indie rock.


Bursting onto the alternative scene in the mid-2000s with Silent Alarm, Bloc Party asserted themselves as one of the genre’s most interesting artists.



Combining clever guitar riffs with thrashing drum work, Bloc Party cemented themselves on indie playlists around the world. Even seventeen years on, it’s rare to find a “British Indie” playlist that does not contain either Helicopter or Banquet.


It’s 2022, and Bloc Party took to the Rock City stage as part of their 2022 tour. Alpha Games, released on the 29th April, is the band’s first release since Hymns six years ago.


So, having been very impressed with Bloc Party when I saw them back in 2019 at Victorious Festival, I was looking forward to seeing them in an indoor venue.


''The Murder Capital executed their set well, and they were really engaging on stage''

The openers, The Murder Capital, brought a complimentary level of energy to the headliners. Comparable to Fontaines D.C. in terms of style, The Murder Capital executed their set well, and they were really engaging on stage. The light show was also impressive, with the Irish band using the opportunities that Rock City provides technically very well.


Around half an hour later and it was onto Bloc Party. In the break, I noticed that the majority of the audience were in their early 30s, highlighting the impact that Bloc Party had on 2005-2007 adolescents.


They began with the opening track on their new album Alpha Games, Day Drinker, and it set the tone of the whole performance. They then played You Should Know The Truth, again off their new record, before throwing their set back to 2007’s Hunting For Witches, perhaps the most popular track off their album that year, A Weekend In The City. Played perfectly, yet the critic in me was ever so slightly let down by the slight lack of aggression going into the song. I was reminded of a video available on YouTube of them playing the same track at Glastonbury in 2009, and even in the live recording it was played with such an indescribable passion. The drums should have come in slightly louder, and the guitar slightly more cutting. But that was nit-picking at a track that was still conveyed efficiently live.



Another track off Alpha Games and then it was a throwback to 2012’s FOUR with the song Kettlings. After again going back to A Weekend In The City with A Song For Clay, there was a phenomenal transition into the iconic Banquet. This is a track that Bloc Party have always been able to play brilliantly live, and the drum opening allows it to either be played individually or merged with another song, and both work very well. On a personal level, it’s a song that takes me back to finding myself as a slightly awkward teenager, and connecting to a song in a way that I hadn’t really felt before. It is an unbelievable song that was played really beautifully.


Throughout the gig, I noticed how difficult it was to actually criticise Bloc Party’s live performances. They can take their music to another level live, and they mix both a youthful passion alongside the consistency and assurance of a band that has been touring for years. In Situ and Traps were standout live tracks from the new record.


Then, the classics began. Before going to encore, Bloc Party played the iconic FIFA track Ratchet, a song which allows lead singer Kele Okereke to unleash his performing charisma even more, as he is not constrained by a guitar. Frantically jumping around the stage, Okereke’s buzzing energy was received well by the crowd, and the song is well-structured for a lively crowd response.


''The night closed with the all-time classic Helicopter, Flux and This Modern Love''

And then to the encore. They returned with Only He Can Heal Me, before playing the almost end-of-movie-romantic sounding If We Get Caught. Both of these were performed to perfection, and the night closed with the all-time classic Helicopter, Flux and This Modern Love. The trio were played fantastically, and in these last three songs, the crowd was indescribably wild, and the atmosphere was one of the best that I’ve seen in Nottingham.


So, as I left the venue, I was really impressed with the set that Bloc Party had put together. I liked the setlist; it appealed to fans of almost every era of the band, and there was a healthy mix of newer and older parts of their discography. The classics were played brilliantly and the new tracks have a lot of potential. Particular praise has to go to drummer Louise Bartle, whose role in the band cannot be understated due to a lot of their drum-driven songs.


Yet, there was a noticeable disparity in reception which disappointed me. Whilst the crowd went absolutely wild during their classics, the reception to their newer work was not muted, but much more reserved. I think Bloc Party are in a way, a victim of their own success and they will always be followed by fans who are there for the old and not for the new. However, the tracks from Alpha Games brought about a lot of promise, and stylistically the whole album draws influence from Silent Alarm and A Weekend In The City, blended together with newer, different ideas that the band have accumulated after years of making alternative rock. It was an outstanding performance from a band that just thrives on stage.


Alex Duke

 

Edited by: Amrit Virdi

Featured image and in-article images and videos courtesy of Bloc Party via Facebook and YouTube.

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