Bloc Party, Bournemouth BIC

Bloc Party

October 31st 2009

Bloctober comes to an end.

As Bournemouth marks the end of their 23 date sold out tour, Bloc Party play like it’s their last live show…

Surrounded by blood stained t shirts and pale painted faces, Bournemouths BIC is hosting Halloween with a feast of guitary goodness. The sole support act, Grammatics, kick-start the show with electro-pop infused songs from their recently released self-titled debut album. When compared with Bloc Party’s previous support acts, Metric, Foals, The Cribs and Delphic, Grammatics don’t seem to get the crowd motivated, but still receive a loud applause.

As the clowns, zombies and Frankensteins clear the stage ready for four piece, Bloc Party chants echo around the centre. The lights dim and they grace the stage for the last time “for the unforeseeable future”. Matt studies the his hometown crowd before erupting into ‘One Month Off’, seamlessly followed by ‘Positive Tension’. A song originally from their firstst collection of EPs still gets the crowd roaring “so fucking useless” along with Kele.

‘Mercury’ sees Kele jump off stage and sing with the crowd. Turning his cap backwards and wrapping his microphone lead around his hand, Kele has transformed into a rapper in an instant. After this seamless introduction the band stops for a breather, but not for long. “Here’s another one from the hit factory”, and then they burst into Intimacy single ‘Talons’. The crowd turns into a sea of bobbing heads.

After dodging numerous glow sticks being launched at his face, Kele jokingly comments, “this ain’t no Klaxons gig”. ‘Signs’ calms the crowd with subtle blue lights creating silhouettes of the band. The crowd clap in sync and Gordan taps away on the xylophone. “I think it’s time for some rock and roll” Kele tells the crowd, following with three hefty tracks from A Weekend in the City and Intimacy. ‘Banquet’ is the pinnacle of the night as the crowd erupt and shouted “I’m on fire” and Kele persists “SING IT!”.

“As the last song was about sex, let’s have one about love”. Ion Square sees Gordon tear himself away from his bass and tap away on the keys this time. Followed by more love-infused tunes from all three albums, it is clear to see that Kele wants you to feel every emotion during their two hour set. And you can see this; people clapping, swaying, chanting, jumping. It was an incredible aura that they created.

Bloc Party leave the stage only to return as a banana, a wrestler, a werewolf and a pumpkin head. They reopen with ‘So Here We Are’ before bursting into a set of guaranteed crowd pleasers. The “final song of 2009″, ‘Helicopter’ is their finale. well that’s what everyone thought until the lights dim again and they play ‘She’s Hearing Voices’; “this song is the reason the band got together”.

As they left the stage Matt jumps down from his podium, took the microphone and urged ‘keep the faith’.