Results tagged “lollapalooza”

At the TLA on Tuesday night, the assembled crowd witnessed a band at the peak of their powers. Bloc Party, the British foursome with two solid albums to their credit (2005’s superior Silent Alarm and 2007’s solid A Weekend in the City) gave a transcendent, 16-song performance that earned the crowd’s raucous reaction and made their two encores totally acceptable (a bit ostentatious for a mid-weekend if you ask me, but what the heck?). They also gave their fans an extra added bonus by choosing as their openers their fellow UK natives, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, four up-and-coming lads who offered a set that was never less than interesting, and often threatened to be revelatory.

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.

Go across the Walt Whitman Bridge and take the North-South Freeway to Route 55. Travel South on Route 55 for about 25 miles, and you'll find yourself in Vineland, New Jersey. (Insert wisecrack about Vineland's awesomely bad municipal website here.) Why would you go to Vineland? Well, at the moment, you probably wouldn't. But next summer, you might have a reason to. Paste Magazine is reporting that C3 Presents—the force behind Lollapalooza and the...