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Bloc Party rages at the Orpheum

Bloc Party rages at the Orpheum
Jill Stone  |  by theedge.bostonherald.com. All rights reserved. 31.03 | 23:24

Despite mountains of critical hype, Bloc Party is definitely an acquired taste.

All the same, the London-based four-piece is one hell of a hyperactive live band, a point driven home repeatedly through a nonstop musical tantrum on the Orpheum stage Wednesday night. Though the venue was not quite at capacity, the unbridled enthusiasm of Bloc Party rsquo;s clapping, chanting and pogoing audience was something to behold.

A somewhat jarring amalgam of post-punk influences, Bloc Party achieved near-universal critical praise for its 2005 debut, ldquo;Silent Alarm, rdquo; which sold 1 million copies worldwide. Frontman and principal songwriter Kele Okereke took his whirlwind experience of success and distilled it into the songs that comprise the band rsquo;s new CD, the dystopian-themed ldquo;A Weekend in the City. rdquo;

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Wednesday rsquo;s opener, the new ldquo;Song for Clay, rdquo; found Okereke pushing at the tippy-top of his voice - not the prettiest sound, but one that created a recurring sense of tension.

Matt Tong rsquo;s choppy drum signatures lifted the initially dreamy ldquo;Blue Light rdquo; with cascading swells of rhythm.

As the set unfolded with ldquo;Hunting for Witches, rdquo; ldquo;Waiting for the 7:18, rdquo; the new CD rsquo;s centerpiece, and whooping versions of ldquo;Banquet rdquo; and ldquo;I Still Remember, rdquo; one reference point kept recurring: If the Cure made music with a more muscular bottom end, it would sound something like this. The similarity between Robert Smith rsquo;s angsty speak-sing assertions and Okereke rsquo;s voice in a live setting is uncanny.

And the breakneck pace of virtually all Bloc Party tunes mimics the best of what early Cure records have to offer.

Bloc Party closed with the near-pop of ldquo;Like Eating Glass rdquo; before returning for a four-song encore that included ldquo;Sunday, rdquo; which featured bassist Gordon Moakes sitting in on a second drum kit.
Post-punk was about breaking away from standard musical structures.

While Bloc Party rsquo;s approach is somewhat more refined, the band successfully pushes at tradition rsquo;s envelope without devolving into noisy rubble - not as easy as it might sound.

Albert Hammond Jr. rsquo;s opening set brimmed with crisp riffs delivered by a four-guitar front line.

But his solo project sounds like a slightly less anarchic version of what he does with his main band, the Strokes. A misguided fan who attempted to rush the stage provided nearly as much entertainment as Hammond.

Sebastian Grangier, formerly of Death From Above 1979, proved more compelling than Hammond.

His trio played a set of new songs that smartly mixed progressive song structures with classic rock riffs and glam sass. Bloc Party, with Albert Hammond Jr. and Sebastian Grangier at the Orpheum, Wednesday night.

Read more on by theedge.bostonherald.com. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Bloc Party, Albert Hammond Jr, Sebastian Grangier, Albert Hammond, Hammond Jr
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