A Noisy Bloc Party at the Tower

Tuesday night, we carted ourselves out to the hot, misty expanse of the Tower Theater to see Bloc Party with the Maccabees and the Noisettes. British band the Maccabees started things off right with a rousing set which, they confessed, was their first performance as a band in America, and their first performance in front of a seated audience. They didn't sound like they were doing anything for the first time, though; they played strong, loud, post-rock tracks with emotional vocals and fantastic beats. We were racking our brains trying to come up with a comparison to describe what they sounded like, and then realized they sounded vaguely like Bloc Party, which made perfect sense. Anyway, we were very impressed.

After a lot of finagling with the equipment onstage, the Noisettes finally came on. We have to admit to being only vaguely familiar with them before the show, but what we'd heard, we'd liked. Live, however, we found their music to be surprisingly discordant and avant garde - almost too much so for our liking. That's not to say they're not a talented threesome, however. Lead singer and frontwoman Shingai Shoniwa has an incredible voice, flexible enough to swing from classic jazz singing to rock and roll scream in the space of half a beat, while guitar player Dan Smith can whip out impressive stadium rock guitar solos like nobody's business. But most entertaining to watch and to listen to was their drummer, Jamie Morrison. Morrison plays the drums with his whole body, his eyes closed in ecstasy as his head swings about violently and his arms and legs flip and dance and tap and pound. He's amazing.

Once the Noisettes took their leave, there was another lengthy wait as more technology was adjusted, and then finally the headliners came on. This Phillyist had just been thinking during the break that live rock and roll shows are one of the very few forms of entertainment where one learns to expect that things will not start on time, and that a great deal of waiting will be involved. So we were impressed and gratified when frontman Kele Okereke actually apologized for being late to the stage. This was after the crowd had already leaped to their feet screaming, of course, forgiving him completely before he even opened his mouth.

Bloc Party went on to play an entertaining, lengthy set which included a three- or four-song encore, and then one final, surprise, follow-up song (which they played with many people standing in the aisles or in the doorway, on their way out). They played all their past hits, along with plenty of tracks from their latest album, Weekend in the City. After repeated listens we find that disc to be not quite as strong as their previous release, Silent Alarm, but it still has many fine selections of post-punk indie rock, and the boys rocked them live. Again we were especially impressed by the work of the drummer, who banged out some very impressive beats. There were also some quite cool light effects going on onstage. Really our only complaint with the show was with Okereke. Live, his voice didn't seem as strong or flexible as it does on their records. He especially seemed to have trouble nailing the notes effectively during the soft, delicate passages. But he certainly isn't a bad singer, and during the shouty bits he was very good.

All-in-all, a fine way to spend a Tuesday night. Oh, and for the other Bloc Party fans out there, you might be interested to know that Kele Okereke is doing a Radio Takeover on 88.5 WXPN tonight at 7PM. That means for an hour or so the Bloc Party frontman will be playing his favorite music for you at 88.5 FM, so tune in!

Photo of Bloc Party taken at the Tower Theater Tuesday night by fellow audience member and Flickr user chriszak, and used with his kind permission