Pop Break Live: Bloc Party ‘Silent Alarm’ Anniversary Tour
When Bloc Party released their debut record Silent Alarm 15 years ago, the British indie rock scene was never the same. In a time when groups like Franz Ferdinand, Razorlight, Futureheads, and the Libertines were kings over in the UK, indie rockers Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Strokes, Interpol, and The Killers were ruling in the United States.
In 2003, Bloc Party took a huge chance handing over a demo of one of their earliest tracks “She’s Hearing Voices” to lead singer Alex Kapranos at a Franz Ferdinand show. Turns out, he loved it, gave it to BBC DJ Steve Lamacq, and the rest is history.
It was impossible for me to not be reminded of Bloc Party’s unique rise to success at their first of two sold-out shows at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Palladium. The quartet’s lineup has changed quite a bit since the release of Silent Alarm with bassist Gordon Moakes and drummer Matt Tong having left the group in 2013 and 2015. Now, drummer Louise Bartle and bassist Justin Harris have taken their place. The opening act LPX, aka solo artist Lizzie Plapinger and one half of the successful duo MS MR, was lively as hell; Lizzie was colorful, engaging, and barely even had to ask the crowd to dance along with her.
By the time Bloc Party took the stage, it felt like the entire venue was buzzing. Despite the lineup change and a decade-and-half of age on everyone’s faces, the band sounded just as they had all those years ago. While it’s not exactly novel these days to do an anniversary-based album tour, the London quartet took a different approach than simply playing Silent Alarm from beginning to end. Instead, they rearranged all the tracks and tossed in a few songs from their triumphant second record A Weekend In The City. The whole setlist felt less like a self-aware evening of playing an album from beginning to end, but instead the band offered everyone in the audience the opportunity to transport themselves all the way back to the band’s early days.
Lead singer Kele Okereke was in top form, engaging with the crowd and smiling a bit more than the last few tours I had seen him on. Guitarist Russell Lissack stood before a dozen guitar pedals and wore his weathered guitar strap, prominently displaying the signature pins he’s collected over the years. The bright white lights shone from the edges of the stage and the band never sounded tighter.
Opening with “Compliments” and “Plans,” the band quickly dove right into a pool of nostalgia. It was only a few tracks later that they began the emotional album closer “So Here We Are,” which almost no one was prepared for. Highlights of the evening included the crowd overpowering Kele’s own vocals during “This Modern Love” and the complete back-to-back-to-back-to-back punch of “Banquet,” “Positive Tension,” “Helicopter,” and “Like Eating Glass” closing out the first set before the encore.
More than anything, the evening with Bloc Party was a lovely reminder that indie music from the early-to-mid 2000s – before the internet was truly game-changing and back when discovering bands and records in music magazines was common – really meant something to a lot of people. Some people might consider album anniversary tours a bit cynical and money-grubbing, but Bloc Party at the Hollywood Palladium is the perfect example against that. Silent Alarm was perhaps the most successful record the band ever released and allowing fans to remember how special it was – even just for one night – is a gift only the most generous of artists could ever provide. Bloc Party playing Silent Alarm in full for that Los Angeles crowd was the finest example of modern love.
