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*Justine*

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hms...melbourne and sydney only...ah well, anyone here going be sure to take pics...lol shesh my enthusiasm levels are so low lol anyway it's good they even visiting aus but still - missing brisbane completely, what happened there ? :thinking:

 

i'm going so i'll be tacking copious ammounts of photos like its going out of fashion!

 

i also really want to know who is going to supprt them. mew finish their US tour in early june and they supported bloc party in the past. i'm so hoping they come out here and support!

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Josh! you lucky thing!! yes take LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of photos please, aw i wish i was going :( but oh well. at least i'm going to see Silverchair soon :nice:

i really like what i've heard of Mew also! a gig with them + Bloc Party would be shweeeeet.

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Better, but still far from great

 

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With: Final Fantasy, the Like

Where: The Wiltern LG, Los Angeles

When: March 19

 

Review: Bloc Party keeps improving, as its Wiltern opener proved, but the English quartet still has untapped potential.

 

It's easy to see why Bloc Party, of all recent British imports, stands most poised to maintain a rabidly devoted fan base in the States, even more so than bands (like Coldplay) that can sell out venues 10 times the size of those it tends to play.

 

Put it down to the magnetic power of inwardly drawn intensity, the sort U2 displayed very early on but pretty much let go of 'round the time of "War." Where more approachable groups connect with a wider array of people through variations on the U2 formula that followed – sweepingly hopeful choruses and universal sentiments wound up in atmospheric arena-rock – Bloc Party is far more locked into its torrent of alienation.

 

You could hear it again and again Monday night during the band's first of two shows at The Wiltern LG – squealing doses of cyclonic noise set against insistent waves of martial drumming, occasionally punctuated by yelping cries from frontman Kele Okereke.

 

To outsiders it can seem impenetrable. It is music whose meaning is like a secret code among late teens and early 20-somethings who, while trying to make sense of their everyday lives (never mind the rest of the world), gain both solace and a rush of blood to the head from Okereke's earnestness and the band's turbulence. They sound nothing like the Smiths or the Cure, yet the relationship between artists and audience is remarkably similar to those cherished cult icons. For a certain sort of rock fan right now, Bloc Party is godhead. It speaks to them in ways no mildly interested admirer can fathom.

 

Which is why this mildly interested admirer keeps coming away from performances ice cold. To anyone not enthralled by the Bloc Party ethos – or its thick sheen of metallic fuzz, like Muse's, only less crafty and melodic – the band can become dull in a hurry.

 

Undeniably the quartet is stronger now than when it offered a less compelling set in August at the Grove of Anaheim. It helps, of course, to have scores of overcome fans on hand, the sort who know the way to a memorable gig is to adopt the English approach of chanting along as loudly as possible. That tends to bolster a band's confidence.

 

And cover up sore spots. I'm still far from convinced that drummer Matt Tong is as incredible as so many believe he is. He has a knack for syncopated, rapid-fire rhythms, but he's glaringly rough around the edges, rarely transitioning as smoothly as on record. And his tempo problems are becoming paramount. He tends to spastically anticipate shifts, whereas an obvious forebear like Larry Mullen Jr. has always known that the secret to this strident style is to hold back as much as thunder forward.

 

Yet Tong is coming along quickly, as is guitarist Russell Lissack, a twitchy, younger counterpart to Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, complete with a similarly stringy, in-his-face haircut. Alas, Lissack is only so far along – nearly to the point Greenwood was when he started making giant swells of white noise on "The Bends," but miles away from exhibiting anything more experimental.

 

Kinda hard to do that when the tone of things is so bleak. That tends to leave Bloc Party in three modes: deafeningly overwhelming, which has limitations; midtempo moody, when half this crowd seemed to tune out; and explosively dancey, when the entire room seemed to leap as one.

 

All of those last moments, however, came from songs off "Silent Alarm," the band's acclaimed (but overrated) debut. "Like Eating Glass," "Banquet," "This Modern Love," "Helicopter" – these are what suck people in, and with good reason, as they bristle with unhinged excitement borne from disillusion. But there's scarcely anything about "A Weekend in the City," Bloc Party's recent follow-up, that equals such potency. As sophomore slumps go, it's a dreary downer that makes the Killers' uneven "Sam's Town" seem like an instant classic.

 

And there's still a great group buried in this muck somewhere, one that someday might make a monumental album worthy of the voice-of-a-generation chatter Okereke garners at home. Surely "Silent Alarm" already is that once-in-a-lifetime wonder for many fans, but I suspect this lot is capable of something that at least reaches the daring of, say, "The Unforgettable Fire" – an inspired work where ambience and urgency meet, and words seem more than an extension of a pose.

 

The Like, a trio of industry daughters who are pleasant on record, cranked up their amps more than expected during their opening set, often sounding like they were emulating early Radiohead as well. But Final Fantasy – Canadian Owen Pallett, who has appropriated the name of the video game series – offered little more than a one-dimensional stunt accompanied by Stephanie Comilang's distracting geek-art audio-visual tricks.

 

Pallett is highly skilled at on-the-spot looping, using his violin or keyboard and some pedals to stack riffs upon several contrapuntal others. At times what he was capable of was almost mesmerizing, as when he expertly recreated the ghostly pounding of John Cale's "Paris 1919," and I would love to see what he could do in collaboration with, say, Sufjan Stevens or the Arcade Fire. But after 15 minutes or so of his routine, his limits had been reached, his compositions all droningly self-indulgent.

 

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/entertainment/music/abox/article_1625209.php

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i also really want to know who is going to supprt them. mew finish their US tour in early june and they supported bloc party in the past. i'm so hoping they come out here and support!

 

that would be insanely amazing. no words to describe however nothing has been said anywhere on either website so i'm thinking it's a no go but still something i like to think about could happen :wink: have a great time Josh!

 

glad you're liking them Claire, not everyone's taste so it's great to hear they are growing on you :nice:

 

...

 

 

i just starting to work through silent alarm. all the rave reviews seem to have made the album bigger or greater than it is (for me atleast) i do think it's really good and remember i have only just started listening to it andi've known and liked awitc first so in a way my approach isn't typical - but don't get me wrong, i still like it, just not as much.

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  • 2 weeks later...

BLOC PARTY WANT TIMBALAND

 

blocpartyap.jpg

 

BLOC PARTY frontman KELE OKEREKE is desperate to work with hip-hop superproducer TIMBALAND. The English singer admits he's been impressed by Timbaland's latest production efforts, include the highly successful JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE album FUTURE SEX/ LOVE SOUNDS and NELLY FURTADO'S album LOOSE. Okereke says, "I've loved everything that he has put out for the last ten years. Production wise, everything else leaves me cold."

 

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/bloc%20party%20want%20timbaland_1027706

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  • 3 months later...

the best i could do last night as far as pictures go, only had my mobile phone...

 

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definetly the best gig i've ever been to, we got a double encore, plus they really really really know how to work the crowd.

 

GOD BLESS BLOC PARTY!

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Downloaded the bside collection "Another Weekend In The City" a few days ago.

Some songs sound even better than the album tracks....

 

 

hms, you wouldn't by any chance have that link? i would love to hear those when you have the time!

 

sounds like it was one hell of a night! :wink: would've loved to have been there!

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