Results tagged “keleokereke”

Fresh off a triumphant performance at last weekend’s Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, in which lead singer Kele Okereke sported a fetching Barack Obama T-shirt, English dance-rock foursome Bloc Party rolls into town tonight to play a sold-out show at the TLA, along with opening act Does It Offend You, Yeah? and its annoying, grammar-check-baffling moniker. This show should be anticipated for several reasons. First, there is the opportunity to see if Bloc Party’s sailor’s-knot-tight rhythms can possibly hold up under live scrutiny. Second, there is the opportunity to find out if seemingly elastic drummer Matt Tong really does have eight arms, as his speedy beat-keeping suggests. Third, there is the opportunity to find out if the inclusion of the song “Helicopter,” off of the group’s 2005 debut LP Silent Alarm, on Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock causes the crowd to be as annoyingly young as this Phillyist is expecting. And finally, there is the opportunity to find out if the warm-up band with the pretentious comma and question mark in its name is as good as their headliners would suggest. Not only are the Reading, Berkshire, United Kingdom natives opening for Bloc Party here, but they will be opening for Nine Inch Nails when they make their end-of-the-month trek through Philly. Hey, who knows, maybe they are strong enough to make you clap your hands and say yeah? Early prediction: a band with two strong albums and a third in the making, along with one that has been compared to Justice and Digitalism? Should be aah-ite.

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.