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Bloc Party Live
Saw Bloc Party last night at the Birmingham Academy and came away feeling severly underwhelmed.
I was in a group of 6 and I think most of us felt the same way.
There were lots of things wrong with it in my view and possibly with the band in general.
They have no stage presence at all. Kele smiles a bit and is polite and friendly but they're just so dull. The second guitarist was doing his best Johnny Greenwood impression with a ridiculous mop of hair hanging over his angsty face as he thrashed his guitar, seemingly producing little to no sound.
Their biggest problem live however is the fact that Kele can't sing. He shouts, he speaks, he tones down all the exciting vocal sections and is all round dull as a lead man. He also sings out of time constantly which is either a stylistic choice or perhaps it's just that he's a weak musician.
Even the drumming, which i was really looking forward to hearing, felt flat and uninspiring (although this is more to do with the sound engineers at the Academy than the drummer).
Then we have the songs. Some sounded good granted, Banquet worked well and Two More Years was far and away the best song of the night. But what I think is the strongest track on the album, Helicopter was an absolute shambles. It's been a while since i've seen a less coordinated performance of a song, it was in a word - shite.
At one point it seemed like they might play Teenage Kicks (it was John Peel day) but they instead played what I presume was a B Side, something about Loving You (with a Chorus that sounded like This Modern Love). This track is probably the dullest song I've ever heard played at the Academy.
But, after all this, I won't hold it against the band. They seem to be decent chaps if a little serious and dull at times. The problem is that the hype built around them has got them almost instantly playing mid range venues when it would probably have helped them to play some very small places first. The same can be said for last year's hype machine, Franz Ferdinand.
I'm expecting a standard response to this post, which will be 'no way man, I was there and they totally blew me away!'. To that I will say you need to get out and see more live music.
Average at best.
I was in a group of 6 and I think most of us felt the same way.
There were lots of things wrong with it in my view and possibly with the band in general.
They have no stage presence at all. Kele smiles a bit and is polite and friendly but they're just so dull. The second guitarist was doing his best Johnny Greenwood impression with a ridiculous mop of hair hanging over his angsty face as he thrashed his guitar, seemingly producing little to no sound.
Their biggest problem live however is the fact that Kele can't sing. He shouts, he speaks, he tones down all the exciting vocal sections and is all round dull as a lead man. He also sings out of time constantly which is either a stylistic choice or perhaps it's just that he's a weak musician.
Even the drumming, which i was really looking forward to hearing, felt flat and uninspiring (although this is more to do with the sound engineers at the Academy than the drummer).
Then we have the songs. Some sounded good granted, Banquet worked well and Two More Years was far and away the best song of the night. But what I think is the strongest track on the album, Helicopter was an absolute shambles. It's been a while since i've seen a less coordinated performance of a song, it was in a word - shite.
At one point it seemed like they might play Teenage Kicks (it was John Peel day) but they instead played what I presume was a B Side, something about Loving You (with a Chorus that sounded like This Modern Love). This track is probably the dullest song I've ever heard played at the Academy.
But, after all this, I won't hold it against the band. They seem to be decent chaps if a little serious and dull at times. The problem is that the hype built around them has got them almost instantly playing mid range venues when it would probably have helped them to play some very small places first. The same can be said for last year's hype machine, Franz Ferdinand.
I'm expecting a standard response to this post, which will be 'no way man, I was there and they totally blew me away!'. To that I will say you need to get out and see more live music.
Average at best.