RECENT ITEMS»

Bloc Party
The Metro
Filter Grade: 82%
by Sean Moeller | 01.01.2007

This was one of those shows where you heard comments like, “Remember when we were here for that Arcade Fire show and we did those shots of rum and something else?” coming out of the sold-out Metro crowd, with semi-regularity. It could have just been where we were standing, but it remained to be seen how many people were there because it was fashionable and how many were there for honorable, truly appreciative reasons. Seemingly in a neck-and-neck battle with The Bravery for the title of band with maximus fleximus, London’s Bloc Party made its first Chicago appearance on April Fool’s Day Eve and did all it could to live up to its incredible ink and hyping. And it mostly worked, but an off-handed question posed by dynamic lead singer Kele Okereke before the final song of a four-song encore gave a good indication that it was more of a hung jury than a superfluous embracing. Just short of the bewitching hour, Okereke – wearing a white feather boa over a peach-colored polo shirt, gaping at the neckline – said that the band would be back to the city in May and asked, “Who’s going to be there?” He got a loose scattering of applause (maybe it’s simply a pessimist’s belief, but it sounded to have been much less than he could have expected to receive before the opening song, “Like Eating Glass”). Then, with a slight chuckle, he asked, “Who’s not going to be there?” Off, into the back of the audience one could hear a couple claps, blanched of all sarcasm.

But those were the exceptions. No one really likes participating in such banter so the informal straw poll couldn’t possibly have been a true reflection of what the Party – supporting its stupendous debut full-length Silent Alarm – did upon arriving through a heavy wash of Church Sunday organs (surprisingly, it could have also been a track from The Advantage’s record). Okereke railed through the album’s opening track before siccing “Positive Tension,” giving the lyric, “I’m gonna use my teeth and my breasts / I’m gonna make it happen” more of a nervous tension, showing rather alluringly just how large of a brush fire is snapping and crackling in the pit of his belly. Now, if only someone would tell bassist Gordon Moakes and lead guitarist Russell Lissack that it’s okay to look like they’re enjoying themselves, the group – reliant on that curling passion that serves as their succor – could have a presence that lives up to their recording. The only time we had much of an indication that Death From Above 1979 T-shirted Moakes was cognizant was when he dedicated “Blue Light” to his dad. Lissack was proportionately more animated, but chose to stay mostly transfixed into place with his flop-banged Conor Oberst hair shielded him from eye contact. Drummer Matt Tong, who set up his own drum kit in a non-superstar move, quickly went bare-chested and was the heartbeat behind Okereke’s surging emotiveness.

With music so deeply felt, Okereke can easily move anyone, but until Moakes and Lissack give us the feeling that they aren’t just trying to be technically sound, we’ll be left without a whole, huge chunk of what makes these guys a superior answer to anything Franz Ferdinand did in aught four.

Photo Credit: The Cobra Snake