Live Review: Bloc Party - Alexandra Palace, London 28/05/2022
Bloc Party took Ally Pally on an emotionally charged and energetic ride featuring their most iconic tracks, matched with a hefty selection of songs from their new dancey, post-punk album.
Irish post-punk rockers The Murder Capital warmed the crowd up nicely before the headliners took to the stage, with lead singer James McGovern stalking the stage with an Ian Curtis intensity as the band thrashed out their blend of indie rock.
Bloc Party started their hour and a half set by easing into things with a slew of slower atmospheric tracks from their latest release Alpha Games, before gradually building up the emotion and energy in the room, striking the audience with their most potent tracks when they least expected it.
A stripped-back stage served as the background for the band’s homecoming show, with a large Venus Fly Trap image looming behind, the cover from the new album, and a perfect visual precursor of the show ahead.
Their performance was nothing short of electric - slow-building, sharp and with one goal in mind, snaring the audience.
The band’s trademark moody bass, quick meandering guitar, and lead singer Kele Okereke’s bold, brazen vocals sounded better than ever following a six-year hiatus.
The Bloc Party performing on Saturday were more aware, more kinetic and less restrained than their younger selves. The alarm is far from silent anymore.
Pulling from 2013’s 'Four' album mid-set, Okereke offered an antidote to ‘anyone who might be angry with how the way the world is now’ by way of a nosedive into heavy-riffed, uprising-themed track Kettling.
Chants of: ‘The future’s ours, yes it is. We can feel it in our bones’, were accompanied by equally charged and firey red-lit staging.
Part gig, part sensory experience, the warm and everchanging stage light was a fifth member of the band. White light evolved into yellow, green, red and blue as the show went on, matching the mood of the songs and indicating how the band wanted Ally Pally to feel.
They have always had great range as a band and are adept at switching between genres, sentiments and feelings. If this gig proved anything once again it’s just that.
For every guttery, sleazy, rough-and-ready song, there was a romanticised lighter track there to meet it, followed by tracks echoing the new harder and more authentic sound they have adopted.
Nostalgic indie tracks from the earlier half of the 00s contrasted against dancey, electronic and ravey songs like Flux and Ratchet; ‘Ratchet’ is an opportune moment for Kele to flex his signature vocal skills - namely that quick and clever spoken-word-like vocal style he possesses.
Helicopter, Banquet and Hunting for Witches were also big moments and provided pure euphoric homecoming party vibes.
The show peaked at the penultimate song ‘This Modern Love’, a warm and clear love letter to the fans, as Kele proclaimed: ‘We’re dedicating the next song to anyone who’s missed us in the last three years.”
The adoration between the band and the crowd was tangible.
For the finale of the show, they cranked things up a notch one more time, finishing on one of their best - the offbeat and high energy debut album favourite ‘She’s Hearing Voices’.
The band’s signature darting guitar solos and whirring frenzied riffs on the track bewitching the audience to have one final dance.
Words by Monique Hall
Photography by Abigail Shii
