Bloc Party @ Madison Square Garden, 10.3.07
UPDATE: “Flux” now available for download below.
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I saw Bloc Party play the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden last night. It was okay. Not spectacular and nowhere near as good as they’ve been in the past, but it was the venue and audience that was to blame more than anything. The band gave it their all and were clearly psyched to be back under the bright lights in the states again, but it’s hard to get into a show when you’re surrounded by investment bankers who don’t dance ’cause they’re only there to impress their girlfriends. But whatever, it was fucking Bloc Party playing live ten feet away from me; I still had a phenomenal time. They played pretty much everything I wanted to hear, surprised everyone by working B-side “The Once And Future King” into the setlist and even had the entire audience wish my niece a happy birthday at one point. She turns one tomorrow, and even though Kele told the crowd to wish her a happy fifth birthday (we’ll chalk that up to the, uh, five year time difference in England…), it was a sweet gesture.
But the big news of the night was the unveiling of a BRAND NEW SONG to open the encore, featuring Gordy trading his bass for a Korg synth on the track. It didn’t sound all that mind-blowing, but it was only the second time they’d ever played it live and regardless, it’s not like the news of a Bloc Party song isn’t gonna give me a big old hard-on. Even more exciting though, is what they’re going to do with that new song. Titled “Flux”, it’ll see a release as a non-album single on November 12th (only three weeks!), backed by “Emma Kate’s Accident” on the CD-single and “Once And Future King” on the 7″. They recorded it live tonight, mixed the studio version yesterday and it’ll be in the hands of the masses before you know it. Or I could just give you the radio rip now, which Zane Lowe debuted as his Hottest Record In The World Today an hour ago. I’ll let you be the judge, but it’s… different. You can definitely dance to it, but oh man does Silent Alarm seem so far away these days.
MP3: “Flux” (Radio Rip) - Bloc Party
And yeah, that’s pretty much it. Most of all I’m just bummed I never got to see Bloc Party before their graduation to big-league venues and theaters. I managed to break my ankle they night they played their first-ever DC show at the Black Cat in 2005 (which I may never forgive myself for), and when they returned to play the 9:30 Club that June I was off in Europe, busy smoking my bodyweight in pot in Amsterdam. Now I’m stuck getting lost in the crowd at fucking Madison Square Garden and other over-sized venues around town, but whatever, I can deal I guess. At the end of the day, it was was a pretty fucking great way to spend a Wednesday night, so I’m all smiles for now.
MP3: “The Once And Future King” - Bloc Party
And in case you’d forgotten, that James Rutledge remix of “Uniform” is still one of the best things to ever happen to the band and one of the elite remixes of the year.
MP3: “Uniform” (James Rutledge Remix) - Bloc Party ((highly recommended))
October 4th, 2007 at 1:57 am
“smoking my bodyweight in pot” … come visit
October 4th, 2007 at 2:48 am
yes, you really did miss out not being able to see them in smaller clubs. I got the chance to see them at Slim’s here in sf and it was GREAT, and then later on at the fillmore, which was the best Bloc show I’ve ever been to. It is a werid feeling being a fan of a band from the beginning, they recently headlined the radio show here and played at the shoreline which is one of the biggest venues in the bay area. LONG LIVE THE BLOC!
October 4th, 2007 at 6:50 am
Hmm, so I should really go and see them at the Barfly in a couple of weeks time and not sell my tickets, right?
Right.
October 4th, 2007 at 6:59 am
They’re playing a 200-capacity club in London next weekend… tickets currently fetching about $250 each on eBay. I’m sorely tempted.
October 4th, 2007 at 7:00 am
Oh yeah, just saw what Jamie wrote. Yeah, they’ll be rubbish man, you may as well just fork over your tickets to me now
October 4th, 2007 at 8:09 am
I saw The Decemberists last night. Bet they were better.
I saw Bloc Party with quite a large gathering of my friends in January and everyone thought they were good… Functional. Unsurprising. They don’t DO much onstage, do they? Just stand and smile, and play. Which is nice, I guess…
October 4th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
speaking of “flux”, you see this?
http://www.vicerecords.com/blocpartyconan.jpg
October 4th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
So true about the pretentious investment bankers. It’s always unsettling to be at a concert with someone in a suit and tie next to you… I’ve been trying to figure out who the bands were that opened, anyone know who the girl band was?
October 4th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
That new song is brilliant. It may not sound like Silent Alarm, but it’s so typical of them to do… it sounds similar to The Prayer, only more frantic and electronic. I love it (and them.)
October 4th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
guy, I wasn’t there but I guess their female warmupband is Smoosh, they made an excellent cover of ‘This modern love’.
October 4th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
guy, I wasn’t there but I guess their female warmupband is Smoosh, they made an excellent cover of ‘This modern love’.
And thanks for ‘Flux’, fuckin’ ace!
October 4th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
How was Tokyo Police Club?
And how did Kele wish your niece a happy birthday? Backstory please?
October 4th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
wow i can’t believe they played “once and future king” ! that is my favorite b-side. and yeah, i saw them twice in sf this year, once at shoreline. it sucks! they played “positive tension” and NO ONE screamed out “so fucking useless.”
October 4th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
turns out bloc party is now an electronic dance set. sick
October 4th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
they were actually at dar constitution hall in june, not the 9 30 club. but whatever. i’m just bitter because i had tickets and couldn’t go.
October 4th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
No no Ashley, I’m referring to June 2005, not last summer. I loathe Constitution Hall though, so I wasn’t bummed at all about missing them there last summer.
October 5th, 2007 at 12:22 am
“they played ‘positive tension’ and NO ONE screamed out “so fucking useless.’”
A lot of people did at ACL, including me. It was fucking awesome. I think they have to work on their sound (make the guitars higher in the mix; “Song for Clay” fell limp b/c of that problem), but it was still very enjoyable. I was singing/dancing out of my mind. I had just hoped they would play “Two More Years,” “We Were Lovers,” and “SRXT,” but I wasn’t surprised none of them made the cut, especially considering the first 2 are non-album songs.
“Flux” is……….. different.
October 5th, 2007 at 2:42 am
Yeah I saw Bloc Party down here in Houston (I go to Rice, and greatly miss NYC), everybody screamed ’so fucking useless’. Kele was angry that not nearly enough people were dancing (I was doing my part), but that’s a whole other story. They played Once and Future King (Kele said that only if we were ‘really good fans’ we’d know the song) as well and I went nuts. Flux is great, great, great, catchy from the first few Moog seconds.
October 5th, 2007 at 6:05 am
Flux!!!
Ah, I love it!
So 80’s, so good.
October 5th, 2007 at 7:29 am
i guess my soft spot for the bloc is never going to go away
October 5th, 2007 at 7:31 am
oh and might i add, if flux isnt THE most remixable song ever then i dont know what is. im hoping the ed banger crowd do something special with it…
October 5th, 2007 at 8:12 am
[…] Listen to it here (@ Good Weather for Airstrikes) then report back with here what you think! […]
October 5th, 2007 at 8:33 am
thank you so much!!!!
October 5th, 2007 at 10:06 am
“flux” sounds a bit like some euro-dance-tracks from the 90s which i had hoped to have vanished from my memory.
October 5th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
I have seen them in small venues and large but I have to say at ACL their performance was about as good as it gets for a festival performance…..
Kele jumped off stage and ran through the middle of the crowd as the crowd went crazy.
October 5th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
god bless bloc party! flux is awesome!
October 5th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
I fucking love it. Is there anything this band isn’t capable of?
October 11th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Good blog, mate! I linked to this page for people on my Facebook group to download Flux. I hope you don’t mind?
I love this single, I think it has potential to be really big. It’s quite a dancy tune as well.. I totally hear you though when you say that ‘Silent Alarm seems so far away’!
The Once & Future King and Cavaliers & Roundheads were a throwback to those days, just a reminder that the spark is still there, nevertheless it seems that the Bloc just keeps on expanding. I never expected Flux to sound how it did!
Again, props to you for the blog.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:37 am
I’ve just uploaded the “Flux” official video to YouTube!
Check it out: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsIMTwVaGyw
October 18th, 2007 at 10:25 am
i saw bloc party play last february in a small venue here in england. it was fucking AMAZING, definitely one of the best gigs i’ve ever been to. i don’t know if it was because it’s the home-crowd, or simply that it was a small club, but they were really on their game and the audience was loving it. i was in the front row and pretty much got squashed for 90% of the show since everybody behind me was going nuts and trying to get closer. and everybody screamed out “so fucking useless” at the end of positive tension, and kele fell to the floor and looked like he had a seizure. and there was a lot of interaction with the audience, in the form of a debate on who was the worst artist at the time. gordon said “the kooks”, kele said “mika”, matt said “the automatic” and i can’t remember what russell said.
October 19th, 2007 at 11:44 am
ANYONE GOING TO BLOC PARTY IN AMSTERDAM?????
Wed., Nov 7th - flying over early just for the show.
playing @ Heineken Music Hall, should be an awesome show.
www.heineken-music-hall.nl