We have seen Bloc Party three times in the past three months – at South by Southwest in March, Coachella in April and Tuesday at the Gothic. Each time, the British firecrackers have lit their set afire with the single “Like Eating Glass” by playing the track first.
And each time, it has been a deep sigh of relief.
Because most bands save the best-known tracks for the finale and encores, it’s all the more refreshing that vocalist-guitarist Kele Okereke and his band jump-start things with the most familiar of their material. This allows your brain to settle down and concentrate on the rest of their set, generally made up of lesser-known tracks rooted in the energetic post-punk that has made Bloc Party a buzz-band the world over.
Okereke’s presence is enough to carry the band – his staggering charisma fronting three skilled instrumentalists – but the band’s songs hold their own beyond Bloc Party’s slightly tousled performance style. Okereke switches between his obsessions with The Cure and the Gang of Four with unnatural ease. And when he tosses his guitar behind his back and goes off on the mic, it’s the work of the quintessential, meticulous frontman working the crowd with a calculated fury sadly absent in today’s popular musicscape.
After a few secondary mic issues in “Positive Tension” at the sold-out Gothic show, the group went on to triumph Tuesday night. “This Modern Love” is a beautifully crafted song that was executed with careful fury. The soft delivery slowly morphed into an angry shout, and the song popped unexpectedly from the stage with an urgency that surpassed everything else that came before it.
Kiss Me Deadly, the second band on the bill, presented the audience with a boring, soulless set undeserving of such an opening spot. Reverb missed the opener, She Wants Revenge, but it’ll be back. Hopefully, so will Bloc Party.
– Ricardo Baca
The Fray
Even the most beloved local bands would have to look under rocks and sofa cushions to find enough fans to sell out the Gothic Theatre. But these hometown heroes turned Epic Records up-and-comers did it with ease Friday.
“You guys made it happen for this band,” 93.3 KTCL deejay Nick Cage told a squealing, girl-heavy crowd after opening sets by Starfuzz and Meese. The buzz around The Fray, a piano-rock quartet that will have to work overtime to ditch the Coldplay and Keane references, has been building for months. The grace with which the band commanded a room this full was a test as to how The Fray will sustain the rigors of promoting its first major-label album, due later this year.
The good news is that with Joe Jackson’s confidence and narrative prowess, singer/piano man Isaac Slade, formerly the Gothic’s grocery-shopping intern, seemed as comfortable onstage as he might in the Slade family living room. His vocals, fused with the band’s symphonic eloquence, were crisp and engaging during “Vienna” and other tracks from the EP “Reason.”
The not-so-good news is that The Fray’s signature song, “Over My Head (Cable Car),” despite being ripe with richer production than the original recording, failed to translate that fullness in the live setting. So while the crush of devotees near the front of the stage hung on every note, newcomers to The Fray left this sold-out show wondering what all the fuss is about.
– Elana Ashanti Jefferson
