Forgoing the usual love affair with the old, Bloc Party ran a gambit of new material with only a few nods to their debut and much loved Silent Alarm when they appeared in front of a packed Congress Theatre in Chicago last Friday.  But if the show did anything to its increasingly youthful following, it proved that while A Weekend In The City may not have been a critical success nor more than a yawn and a safe bet, it can definitely turn heads live.

The band took stage and filled the air with their brand of intensity and whimsical notes. Driven by drummer Matt Tong and his fueling beats, opener ‘Songs for Clay’ was a thumping riot that surly highlighted the newer material.  Forgettable album notes like ‘Hunting For Witches’ played much stronger than expected live along with ‘The Prayer’ and a slick ‘SRXT’ encore.  ‘So Here We Are’ played flawlessly to a wanting crowd who bellowed each lyric with Kyle Okereke despite him apologizing for the Bears loss to the superior Colts during the Super Bowl.  I saw tears.

The concert itself facilitated an ease for my growing anxiety that the band had lost touch with its punk-dance influential beginnings.  Where as ‘Like Eathing Glass’ and ‘Helicopter’ could and did tear any group in attendance into rabid screaming minions of Okereke religion, most of the recent efforts of their sophomore album left me feeling like they went pop implosion instead.  And yes, some of the offerings like ‘Sunday’ and ‘Uniform’ were less than their counterparts, but still played stronger than the studio versions when on stage. 

Take solace in the fact that Bloc Party is a rare breed of musical sincerity that can connect not only with the energy of a crowd, but respond to their critics (like myself) with convincing versions of otherwise dull and trite songs to somehow make them sizzle live.

all images copyright Karen Kendall