Bloc Party + Longwave - Terminal 5 (New York, NY; Mar. 24, 2009)

The power of the Internet can be demonstrated by the surplus of review sites accessible via a simple search. Looking up critiques of New York City’s Terminal 5 will make anyone with a ticket to the venue leery. As I held my torn stub for UK electro-indie-funk group Bloc Party’s all ages show ,I was apprehensive about whether such experimental music could be executed in what is supposedly one of the worst acoustic spaces in Manhattan.

Longwave, the neighborhood kids from Brooklyn, opened the show and tested the system for my ears. It took a matter of minutes to conclude that this quartet is more of a one-man-show, as front man Steve Schiltz made sure the spotlight was fixed on him and his dominating vocals and guitar licks. Certainly talented, Schiltz would be better served by allowing his band to pull more weight or by becoming a solo artist. Regardless, Longwave showed they belong in the next tier of musicians with aggressive chord progressions and cut-stop endings that took the energy of the room to a high.

As Bloc Party took the stage, the youth of the all-age audience showed up in force at the front of the floor to partake in some debauchery, which was later amplified when encouraged by the band. Lead singer Kele Okereke reached the crowd from front row to balcony, age 14 to 40, and held them in his palm from the opening song to the closing encore. Like an ice cube in the hand of Satan, the loyal followers melted to the sound of an English accent pouring from Okereke’s lips. His flirtatious, confident, overly charming discourse with fans started as endearing and ended nauseating.

When he wasn’t fawning over the audience, Kele was passionately blasting his smooth vocals into the microphone, equipped with alteration tabs and a looping foot pedal. His voice boomed over the chillingly impressive riffs of the lead guitarist, Kele’s childhood friend Russell Lissack. Lissack’s suave, careless demeanor demonstrated his focus on his craft as his fingers danced across strings on tracks including “The Prayer” and “Mercury.”

The set list featured a perfect array of upbeat, infectious rock tracks and trance-like numbers that kept the tempo of the evening varied. Following each sudden slow down with a song such as “Signs,” Okereke would explode and up the energy on a dime. In one such moment, a transition to “Eating Glass” took the room from complacency to chaos. It was impressive to see a group with such a risky and creative portfolio execute a set list representative of the entire spectrum of their talent, notably balancing the list across all three of their releases, including their latest, Intimacy.

Shirtless drummer Matt Tong punished his drum kit with incredible fills on “Positive Tension” and Gordon Moakes was musically everywhere—setting down his standard bass to throw down on keyboards, the xylophone and a drum machine. Okereke was physically everywhere, choosing to climb into the balcony towards the concert’s climax and nearly decapitate several audience members with his mic cord in the process. When all together on stage, the quartet dazzled, and chose to round out the night with the crowd pleasing “Modern Love.”

Kele’s over-the-top foolishness combined with his stale between-song banter were the only real downsides to the performance. But coupled with the horrendous acoustics of Terminal 5, it resulted in my having mixed feelings overall. Still, in the end, I came to see Bloc Party attempt to translate their effectiveness in the studio into a live stage performance and they did so in an admirably entertaining fashion. With three successful albums released, this progressive group continues to blur the lines of genre and reinvent the boundaries of instrumentation. They are undoubtedly a band worthy of the price of admission. However, next time, I will choose a 21+ show and hope it takes place in a far superior venue.