Bloc Party

A success story: Band slogs around for two years, hands demo to Scottish band on brink of success, gets invited to join tour with them, slowly but surely become the biggest new band in the country. It’s a mini adventure. After wowing the masses on CD:UK (did you see the chav girls rave dance?), selling out two nights at the Astoria almost instantly, and having just released a guaranteed-to-do-well album, it seems Bloc Party are becoming unstoppably huge. Which is obviously why they’ve chosen to play Camden’s Barfly for one last hurrah before joining the indie elite. The hottest tickets in town sold out in 3 minutes flat, there are touts lining the streets of Chalk Farm hours before doors are open, and as the punters pack into the venue, they know they’re about to see something special.

But first, another success story:

In the two months since I last saw openers Battle, they’ve gone through somewhat of an overhaul; apart from a name change (they were formerly known as Killing Moon), it seems they’ve decided to look and sound better than ever. They’ve donned the pinstripe shirts and smart trousers du jour, and completely refined their sound. Admittedly, with the complete works of Gang of Four, The Psychedelic Furs and Echo And The Bunnymen, as well as enough effects pedals to simulate the start of a nuclear war, Bloc Party comparisons are inevitable, but where the bands differ most is their onstage approach. Bassist Tim Scudder dances with his bass, while singer Jason Bavanandan is one of the most compellingly uncomfortable looking frontmen I’ve seen in a long time. Their entire set consists of the kind of frenetic, exciting, angular pop music that tonight is celebrating, and by the final chords of their gorgeously epic last track ‘Children’, I’m sure most of the newly-converted audience know they’ll be back here in 18 months time, as Battle wave goodbye to the toilet circuit for good.

Which is more than can be said of Neils Children, and to be honest, they probably wouldn’t have it any other way. Their unique brand of psych(o)-punk is a surprising hit with the crowd, and the newer songs they played showed a new-found sense of melody, while 'The Virgin Sleeps' was an unusually slow moment. But the highlight isn’t to be the delay-pedal-tastic ‘How Does It Feel Now You’re On Your Own?’, or the gutpunch gutterpunk of anthemic single ‘I Hate Models’, but the final freakout. Neils have always been known to wear their influences on their sleeve (even their name cribs from Marc Bolan’s old band John’s Children), but Neils are probably the only band in London who could end a set with a medley of Pink Floyd’s legendary ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ and Public Image Ltd’s ‘Poptones’, and get away with it. Jammy sods.

Of course, the night belonged to Bloc Party – likely to be their last ever gig in a venue this small (a farewell to the Bricklayer’s Arms, as it were) they did it in style. Opening with ‘Banquet’, the band send the crowd into a frenzy, and even in the heat of the excitement, they don’t miss a beat. Russell Lissack and Kele Okereke’s dual guitar attack powers the set, as the band charge through their most popular tunes. Shorn of Paul Epworth’s fantastic production (as well as handclaps and glockenspiels), ‘Price Of Gas’, their most Gang Of Four-esque track, shines even brighter than on record, although the band’s cryptic yet clearly biting dedication of the song to “a DJ duo we can’t name” does leave a number of their more naïve fans a little confused (they’re talking about the Queens of Noize, kids).

Every song is delivered with the kind of force usually delivered by a tankful of explosives; the pounding ‘Positive Tension’ is a taut, funky masterpiece, powered by Matt Tong’s disturbingly tight drums, and during debut single ‘She’s Hearing Voices’, the crowd gets so into it that Kele has to encourage them to “dance, not push!”. ‘Like Eating Glass’ and ‘Helicopter’ get the best responses (Kele’s even moved during the former to say “That was the first time anyone’s ever sung that one back to us”), while uncharacteristically ambient top 5 smash ‘So Here We Are’ is met with muted applause, understandable, given how divided people are over it’s status as a single. They end with ‘The Answer’; one of the poppiest moments in their canon, it may be an obscurity (tucked away at the end of their debut EP), but the band and crowd go possibly even more mental for it than they did for the rest of the set. The crowd ignore the fact that the band have only played 11 songs, disregarding the lack of ‘Staying Fat’, ‘Luno’ or the battle cry that is ‘The Marshals Are Dead’. They know they’ve just seen a (dare I say it) classic gig. The band, meanwhile, are celebrating for different reasons; they know it’s the end of an era. No more idling under the radar for Bloc Party – it’s time to go global. A mini adventure? Not for much longer…