bloc party celebrate ‘20 years’ with their biggest headline show yet at london’s crystal palace park

★★★★★ (5/5)

BLOC PARTY PERFORMING AT LONDON’S CRYSTAL PALACE PARK
PHOTOCREDIT: MICHAEL HUNDERTMARK

Celebrating twenty years as a band, Bloc Party play their biggest headline show yet to 25,000 people at London’s Crystal Palace Park. A homecoming show for the London quartet, the all-dayer featured a stacked lineup of indie heavyweights.

First up was Connie Constance, an indie artist who has been making waves in recent years. A string of high profile collaborations with the likes of Swedish House Mafia , Sleaford Mods and Casisdead has increased attention to the North London singer’s new album ‘Miss Power’ which is featured heavily in the short but sweet set.

Next up were The Mysterines, bringing heavy guitars down to the capital from Liverpool as the park begins to fill up. Having now established themselves on the scene, The Mysterines brand of grunge and garage-rock goes down well with even the Bloc Party die-hards who have come early to get their spot for the day.

A true celebration of 00s indie-rock wouldn’t have been complete without some of Bloc Party’s peers. NME favourites Friendly Fires play a career spanning set, nearly celebrating twenty years as a band themselves (alebit with a short hiatus in the 2010s). Shoegazing indie-rock and dancey beats go down well with the crowd who probably who are well versed with the band’s hits.

It’s brave of any headliner to book Sweden’s The Hives as an opener. A formidable opening act, the punk rockers put on display why they are still one of rock’n’roll’s best live bands. Equal parts Iggy Pop and Mick Jagger, frontman Pelle Almqvist doesn’t stay still for a second whilst they energetically rattle through hits such as ‘Main Offender’ and ‘Hate To Say I Told You So’; staples of any indie disco. The rest of the band have vigourous energy and a mad glint in their eye when hard strumming power chords at breakneck speed. Taking the opportunity to showcase their new album ‘The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons’, new additions such as the opener ‘Bogus Operandi’, ‘Rigor Mortis Radio’ and ‘Countdown to Shutdown’ also hit the spot. It’s over all too soon as a heavily extended ‘Tick Tick Boom’ sees Almqvist control the crowd in the palm of his hand before bidding farewell.

Taking to the stage as the sun begins to go down, Bloc Party’s headline set was heavy with hits from the band’s classic debut ‘Silent Alarm’. Aptly beginning with ‘So Here We Are’, frontman Kele Okereke frequently takes time out between songs to celebrate the milestone of twenty years, despite some lineup changes (the addition of fantastic Louise Bartle on drums and Harry Deacon on Bass and Synths). The show didn’t operate like many other ‘classic album’ tours that are all the rage right now with bands playing a legacy album from album from start to finish. Instead, songs from the Silent Alarm were peppered throughout the set with the band actually stopping short of playing the entire album (the omission of ‘Luno’ perhaps the biggest heartbreak of the evening). Okereke has made his thoughts on these types of album shows clear in the past and a solo single cover released by the frontman depicting the burning of their debut LP indicates that for Bloc Party, looking to the present and the future creatively is also part of the twenty-year celebration. Songs from other albums in the bands discography such as the excellent sophomore “A Weekend in the City” and the creatively divergent “Intimacy” also feature throughout.

Okereke removes his jacket early in the set to reveal an NHS t-shirt, proudly sporting it throughout the show. There is an undeniable air of politics, the show taking place just two days after a change of guard in Downing Street which only a few miles up the road. One of Bloc Party’s biggest hits ‘Hunting for Witches’ rings out with the lyrics “The Daily Mail says the enemy is among us, taking our women and taking our jobs”. Clearly not subscribing to the ideals of some that artists should remain apolitical, twenty years of Bloc Party also examines twenty years of a changing political climate in the UK. Janky guitar riffs are also frequently interchanged with synth lines and dance rhythms on some of the later hits such as an astonishing rendition ‘Mercury’ which sees Okerke stacking his own voice using a vocal loop pedal. The set is also kept up to date with the groovy ‘Flirting Again’ and ‘Blue’ from recent EPs and the rock heavy ‘Traps’, the lead single from the band’s most recent album ‘Alpha Games’.

The set wouldn’t have been complete without mega-hits ‘Banquet’ (dispatched halfway through the main part of the set) and ‘Helicopter’ and ‘Flux’ which made up part of the six-song encore. Fan favourites such as ‘She’s Hearing Voices’ and ‘This Modern Love’ were dedicated to “the day ones” before closing the night with a high energy performance of the electro-rap-funk madness of ‘Ratchet’ with Okereke energetically spanning the length of the stage amongst a wash of blue lights.

With an outstanding display of what the last twenty years of Bloc Party has represented, it’s exciting to see what the next twenty could bring.