Music review: Intimacy and reassembly with Bloc Party

The past couple of years have seen members of UK band Bloc Party move in different directions that we would not have thought last year that we’d be seeing them live in Manila. After their 2008 electro-driven third album “Intimacy”, frontman and chief lyricist Kele Okereke and drummer Matt Tong each came out with solo albums, lead guitarist Russell Lissack toured with Irish rockers Ash, and bassist Gordon Moakes returned to his old band Young Legionnaire.  

There were rumors that Okereke was sacked from the band, and that he only found out after he saw his bandmates gather at a recording studio without him.

 

The reunion came in the form of “Four”, the band’s latest album. We didn’t think there would be a follow-up to “Intimacy”, but there we all were at World Trade Center, waiting for one of Britain’s best post-punk bands – up there with the likes of Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand – play their old songs with the new.

 

The years of dormancy clearly did the British indie group some serious boost, as the aptly-titled “Four” (fourth album by four members, about four years after the last LP), is arguably one of the band’s most nearly flawless releases since “Silent Alarm”, one of the frontrunners in the post-punk wave of the early 2000s.

 

Positive tension

 

While warming up with 2005's “Silent Alarm” on our way to the venue for the band’s one-night-only Manila concert, I set three objectives: one, to dance ; two, to hear some favorites like “So Here We Are” and “Like Eating Glass” live; and, three, to see if drummer Matt Tong is really human and not a cyborg programmed to play the drums flawlessly.

 

After a beguiling opening set by local band Up Dharma Down, the band effortlessly lifted off into the heavy “So He Begins to Lie,” the first track from “Four”, followed by the predominantly electronic “Mercury.”

 

Next was “Hunting for Witches,” a song about terrorism and the fear that media tends to instill in people (“airplanes crash into towers, into towers, into towers”). This is off the band’s second album “Weekend in the City”, which contained some of their most personal and political tracks, calling attention to cruel realities like racism and homophobia.

 

"Where is Home?", for instance, starts off with lines recalling a racist attack on murder victim Christopher Alaneme, who was a friend of Okereke’s (“We all read what they did to the black boy,” he sings).

 

Due to an illness I’m still recovering from, my feedback was limited to light dancing, head bobbing and the occasional half-jumps. My mind was blown, though. The crowd was great, not the sing-along-to-every-line great, but evidently thrilled enough to show it.

 

Tong, who was obviously feeling the scorching Manila summer heat, played the entire show shirtless, summoning screams from the ladies as he playfully flexed his biceps in-between a couple of songs.

 

Urban loneliness, tragic metropolis

 

During our pre-concert sound trip, a friend took note of how “Silent Alarm” alludes to urban loneliness, being both danceable and a good soundtrack for punching a city in the face. It’s the perfect music to listen to when walking home from busy streets and crowded buildings, where it’s both loud and sporadically tragic. With over eight years to “practice”, the crowd gave the loudest response to this album.

 

Heavy dancing ensued after the intro to “This Modern Love,” I spotted at least three couples smooching during “So Here We Are,” and the audience went nuts again as the familiar intro to the energetic “Banquet” started playing.

 

Okereke’s vocals — strong, haunting, occasionally soulful—sounded as good as what we hear on the records, and in this concert we got a bonus of grooves. Buffed in black shirt and rocking a gold chain, we saw him having a fantastic time, dancing on stage, while laying those signature falsettos and compelling stutters.

 

Tong was vicious (and shirtless)

 

Tong's vicious drumming was one of the things I’d looked forward to the most, and it did not disappoint. Somebody needs to give this guy an award for Being So Much Fun. (Have you seen the cooking show he did for the Guardian? You should.)

 

Moakes showed his multi-instrument and vocal skills during “Waiting for the 7.18,” where he played the glockenspiel before picking up the bass and providing the lower notes to juxtapose with Okereke’s falsettos. Lissack’s exceptional leads, repeatedly compared to Johnny Greenwood in radiohead's “OK Computer” and in Johnny Marr’s Smiths records, were showcased during “3x3” and “Team A.”

 

The two encores included the love song “Sunday,” some lines from Rihanna’s “We Found Love” intro to the electro dance track “Flux,” and the confessional “Truth.” The evening was capped off by “Helicopter,” a “Silent Alarm” favorite.

 

Twenty songs, and definitely one of the most brilliant live shows I’ve seen in a while. Most objectives were met as well. And I say most because I still have to check if Tong is truly human. – KDM, GMA News