photo credit: @vee_ron

Our third and final road trip concert in a month’s time was a special one. None of us three bears had seen Bloc Party prior to this show, so a trip to Dallas to retrieve our forgotten writer Jerome to see ’em at the House of Blues was a must. The band’s currently on their full US tour routing in support of 2012’s Four, a grungy, but beautiful affair, and the band’s first since 2008’s Intimacy and their hiatus, which took place soon after.

We were pretty excited about this one, especially considering it’s the last big show of 2012. Why not go all out and make a trip to Dallas, only to return back to Houston at 3:30 a.m., right? YOLO, as they say.

[Note: It’s been a while since we’ve seen a show as fans first, and due to a lack of press, none of us took photos. Apologies to the folks who had their photos ripped from Instagram. Hopefully the credit isn’t too bad!]

Hit the jump for the review.

-grizzly


photo credit: @bettylu12

After Bloc Party went on hiatus in 2009 and Intimacy was met with lukewarm reviews, the demise of the band was all but guaranteed. Reports swirled that the band was at rifts with and were in the studio without frontman Kele Okereke, especially after he ventured out and released an electro-pop album, The Boxer, in 2010, which all but cemented that idea. But sure enough, here we are in 2012, with a brand new Bloc Party album, Four, to enjoy and love. The band took Four out on the road during their high-energy, aesthetically pleasing and technical live show, performing the bulk of the album in the process. Opening with “So He Begins to Lie” kicked things off smoothly, even though the the bulk of their fanbase held rockin’ out for classics like “Hunting for Witches” and “Banquet.”

After the crowd woke up (they were lulled at first), it was smooth sailing. The energy never faltered, both on the band and the crowd’s behalf. You haven’t felt much until you’ve seen a song like Silent Alarm‘s “Positive Tension” performed, because there’s 2000 people around you all singing “so fucking useless!” in unison – and it’s quite hard to top that specific moment. But throughout the night, the band played with plenty of smiles, between-track banter from Kele and plenty of floodlights, bass and dancing.

photo credit: @jjeannicole

It’s hard to talk about the band’s set without mentioning the star of the evening, who by far, was Bloc Party’s tenured drummer, Matt Tong. The robotic man plays with such precision and finesse, he practically moves in slow-motion, while the rest of us gawk at his human metronome-esque timing. After “Octopus,” the band left the stage and returned, announcing that it was the second half of their set. And sure enough, they played plenty of songs after that, including a reworked “Signs,” and a very rare appearance from “Tulips,” one of the band’s best b-sides.

Everyone’s sentiments gleamed during “This Modern Love,” a bonafied fan favorite at this point. The audience danced plenty, soaking up “Flux” and “Helicopter” with hands to the sky and footwork in tow. A tour like this is good for a band like this for many reasons. But ultimately, it shows that a loving fanbase is still there – putting that youthful energy from the days of Silent Alarm and A Weekend in the City back into a group of fellas that seemed to have gotten jaded along the way, breathing new life into both parties. And shit, the show was fantastic, and will stand as one of the year’s best.

[SETLIST]

So He Begins to Lie
Mercury
Hunting for Witches
Positive Tension
Kettling
Real Talk
Waiting for the 7.18
Song for Clay (Disappear Here)
Banquet
Coliseum
Day Four
One More Chance
Octopus

Encore:

Signs (Reworked)
Ares
This Modern Love
Flux (w/Rihanna’s “We Found Love” intro)

Encore 2:

Tulips (First time they played it on this tour)
Helicopter