Good Weather For Airstrikes

UPDATE: “Flux” now available for download below.

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))

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 3:26 pm and is filed under Live Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.