Kele likes us...he really likes us. That was the impression that Bloc Party lead singer Kele Okereke made during the band's performance in Toronto on Monday. The fans of Bloc Party in Toronto love him back judging by the enthusiastic crowd that jammed the Danforth Music Hall.
Hey... and The Danforth Music Hall looks absolutely superb. Nice to see it back in business again. The last time I was there was for a surprise show by the Arcade Fire in 2010- just before they released The Suburbs. At that time the venue was still a community theatre that featured musicals and kiddie shows. A few weeks after the Arcade Fire show the theatre went into receivership and closed down for over a year. Glad to see somebody bought it, removed all of the seats (with the exception of the balcony) and turned into a proper concert venue.
It has been a long road back for Bloc Party. After rumours that the band were going to break up in 2009 and Okerke released a solo album, Bloc Party have come back strong with the release of their brilliant new album Four.
The concert started with the band bashing out the first single off of Four, Octopus, followed by Trojan Horse off of the record Intimacy. The audience seemed enthusiastic but that was not good enough for Okerke. After the second song he yelled out "C'mon you fuckers" before the band launched into a feral rendition of Hunting for Witches. That seemed to do the trick as the crowd worked itself into a frenzy. By the time the band played Positive Tension there were crowd surfers and a mosh pit which lasted until the end of the concert..
The coolest point of the night was when the band played their new track Song for Clay (Disappear Here) and their biggest hit Banquet, back to back, without a break between songs. The mash up showed the diversity of the band between their grungy new sound and their original high energy dance punk.
Throughout the night Okerke (The sexiest man in indie rock) had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand. At one point in the encore someone from the crowd jumped on stage and ran over to the mic and said something inaudible to Okerke as he was singing. Okerke didn't lose a beat and just ignored him.
Near the end of the first set Okerke stated "and now for something completely different" at which point the band played their awesome synth pop song One More Chance. The song title is ironic as this was the last single released before their rumoured breakup in 2009 and on Monday night it seemed Toronto was willing to give Bloc Party one more chance.
The rumours of Bloc Party's demise have been highly exaggerated.
Set List for the show:
Octopus
Trojan Horse
Hunting for Witches
Positive Tension
Real Talk
Kettling
Song for Clay (Disappear Here)
Banquet
Day Four
One More Chance
This Modern Love
The Prayer
1st Encore
Coliseum
Ares
Flux
2nd Encore
Sunday
Helicopter
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