Music listening masses were provided with a wide variety of bands to choose from during the post-punk revival of the early 2000s. Some stayed, some went, and some oscillate in and out of existence since the boom died down. Bloc Party was was one the bands at the forefront of the movement, much thanks to Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand, who were basically forging the path ahead for all the other bands of the same vein. It was a good year, 2005. That year, Bloc Party, comprised of members Kele Okereke, Russell Lissack, Gordon Moakes, and Matt Tong, released their debut album Silent Alarm to high praise from everyone from Rolling Stone to Pitchfork. The album is truly a solid debut; there is not one bad song on it. NME named it the Album of the Year for 2005 and Bloc Party toured alongside The Killers, Kaiser Chiefs, and The Futureheads on that year’s NME Shockwave Tour for the best of up and coming bands. It was a prime year for the band.
Governor's Ball, New York City, June 2016
In the past eleven years, Bloc Party has released four more albums and had a change in their lineup. Tong left the band in 2013 and Moakes left in 2015, both following the release of fourth album “Four.” Okereke released some solo albums along the way. But in 2015 there was a new Bloc Party album in the works featuring Okereke and Lissack joined by Justin Harris and Louise Bartle. The fifth album “Hymns” came out in January 2016. Even though the album received a mixed reception, and songs like “The Good News” are quite different from what you expect of the band, at the heart of it, the album does still feel very much like Bloc Party.
A few weeks ago I happened to find a copy of Bloc Party’s live DVD from 2005 called “God Bless Bloc Party” that was filmed at the tiny El Rey Theater in Los Angeles and the Eurockeennes Festival in Belfort, France. The two times I’ve seen Bloc Party are in 2016 at the tiny Irving Plaza in New York City and the Governor’s Ball Festival also in New York City. It was not until I watched this DVD over the weekend and compared it to the times I have seen the band that I truly realized how they have changed and also grown. One of the most striking things that my friends and automatically noticed while watching is that during the El Rey show especially Okereke smiles so much! He seems to be having the best time ever during the show, whereas at Irving Plaza I do not remember a single show of emotion from him. It could have been an off day because he was in such a great mood during the Governor’s Ball show, which was definitely the better of the two shows. The energy in the crowd during both of the DVD shows was also insane. The crowd was always moving and dancing, dudes were constantly being raised and falling in attempts of crowd surfing, and there was always a godforsaken mosh pit. I wish we had at least had the first of that list at the shows I went to. But one thing that felt the same, if not a bit better, which is the most important, was that the band was very much into the music and enjoyed being on stage.
Bloc Party also just released a new song this week on September 20, "Stunt Queen," proving that they are a band still going strong.
