Bloc Party

For Komakino, this is arguably the most high profile tour of their short careers.

As a band who've been on the precipice of commercial success for a while now, their time is surely creeping upon us as we speak. With the unenviable task of having to open for what is essentially a gathering of Bloc Party's most hardcore of fans, most bands would wither away like last year's daffodils and die on the spot.

Not Komakino, or their diminutive frontman Ryan Needham. When he isn't practising semi-procured backflips off the drum riser he's endeavouring to get in with the BP devotees in the moshpit, and what's more those fans who 10 minutes ago may have been staring at each other with blank expressions asking "Who the hell are these guys?" are lapping it up. 'Kommunikate' bends and swerves like a sonic Beckham free kick while 'Shotgun Valentine' and the as-yet untitled new song they play halfway through both sound like radio friendly singalongs by day and indie club anthems by night.

As far as Bloc Party are concerned, it doesn't seem like two minutes since they were last here, which is probably testament to the fact they spent nearly two years playing the songs that by and large made up their platinum selling debut 'Silent Alarm' to a then unsuspecting audience.

Now of course, their return is one of the most anticipated of the year, and in the no frills, no gimmicks style we've come to be accustomed with, they've decided their "real" fanbase should be the first to hear the new material they've spent almost a year working on. Not that tonight is just a showcase for the unfamiliar.

Their set, which lasted just over an hour, concentrated more on the old than the new, but at the same time, all five of their previously unheard material didn't just whet the appetite for the new record, it merely dissolved the taste buds in sulphuric acid.

Opener 'Waiting For The 7.18' actually recalls the heady days of 'Nowhere'-era Ride in that its mellow, tremelo engulfed canter actually illustrates a) What a fine guitarist Russell Lissock actually is; and b) Kele Okereke's enigmatic charisma now has a distinct air of confidence that sometimes may have been lacking. Similarly, 'Hunting For Witches', which may sound more like the sonic bluster of Muse if they were given a My Bloody Valentine makeover and simply illustrates how far as a band Bloc Party have progressed over the past 12 months.

Best of the newbies though is undoubtedly the epic 'Uniform', which revolves around a verse/chorus/monologue where Okereke lambasts the "We are handsome, we are cool, so entertain us!" scenesters over what at first appears to be a pontificating ballad before the middle eight kicks in and reveals an almost 'Bohemian Rapsody' side to their make-up that probably even their mums and dads didn't know existed.

Never ones to disappoint the crowd though, if the early triumverate of 'She's Hearing Voices', 'This Modern Love' and 'Banquet' reduce the room to a brow-beaten frenzy of sweat and stale beer, then the closing 'Helicopter' and encore of 'Little Thoughts' cause a near full scale melee like the final scene in 'Riot In Cell Block H'.

With the album expected to be out sometime in September, Autumn cannot come soon enough if the new songs aired tonight are anything to go by.

Simply magnificent then, But did we really expect anything less?