Bloc Party Review

Overall Rating

Very energetic!

Way too short

Having heard (I couldn't see a thing!) Bloc Party's set at Leeds Festival this year, we decided to go along to see them play their own gig, in a wonderfully small venue. Needless to say, we weren't disappointed.

They play energetic retro-punk/post-punk songs, which I find, rhythmically anyway, are somewhere along the lines of Joy Division meets At The Drive In. In case you're not following, lots of melodic, driving bass lines, choppy lyrics and a lot of intelligence.

The atmosphere was fantastic, and for such a new band (their third single, Helicopter, went top 30 this weekend), a really fanatical following that knew every word to every song. The band seemed genuinely moved by it and there was great interaction between band and audience.

The only real downside is that when they left the stage after 40 minutes we felt as if they'd only been on for about 10 minutes. This is hardly a downside as usually when I go to see a band with whose catalogue I am mosly unfamiliar, I find myself checking my watch after about 20-30 minutes. Plus, they did come back on and play a 20 minute encore, I assume they played every song in their repertoire.

All in all, BRILLIANT!