2005 ACL Fest Home > Reports from the ACL Festival > Archives > 2005 > September > 24 > Entry
Lining up for a fiesty Bloc Party
If you blinked at South by Southwest, you missed them. If you overlooked their debut album, “Silent Alarm,� at the record store you missed out. But if you caught Bloc Party at ACL on Saturday you witnessed one of the feistiest sets in the festival’s four-year history. Singer Kele Oreke and guitarist Russell Lissack tried to revive the 1980s snarling punk sound, while shirtless drummer Matt Tong sweated out beats that the Cure would readily adopt in their songs about boredom, arrogance, and sex.
Despite the fact that they played nearly every song from “Alarmâ€? with a spiky friction that had even the security officers jumping up with tension, the set still seemed far too short — I really wish they had shown their softer side with “Compliments.â€? Still, I can’t complain. After all, if you really love something, you have to set it free.
If the sharp “Like Eating Glass,� the luminous “Blue Light� and the newest “Two More Years� are the future wave of British punk music, I’ll gladly migrate to Her Majesty’s homeland. Those of you who were there know what I mean. Those of weren’t, I feel sorry for you. After making a name for themselves at SXSW and forming a widespread fan base with a song on the “Wedding Crashers� soundtrack, it’s going to be hard to get this close to them again.
Comments
By Moose
September 27, 2005 04:32 PM | Link to this
Simply wonderful!!!! Bloc Party is truly a band that apprecaites it success and it is easily seen when they are on stage. Every song brough excitement from the audience. It will be interesting to see where the band goes after their first album, but if they are able to progressive, they could be one of the great ones.