Monday, July 02, 2007

Party at the (Moon) Tower

Well so much for the pundits... but the Sopranos ending was great - fuck the haters. (Sorry, this post shoulda been up weeks ago.)


Caught 2 great shows earlier this month. First was Bloc Party at the Tower.

Kele & co put on an energetic show last Tuesday in Upper Darby. The Tower is definitely my favorite venue in the city.

The first opening act was a band called The Maccabees from (as all their press says) Brighton - via South London. Despite that affectation they sounded pretty good. Really good in fact. They looked as though none was old enough to drink in this country and this was their first night joining the tour due to some visa issues yet the sound was confident. The lead singer's voice has a peculiar quality to it, very British but it also contains a kind of haunting vocal tremolo. Add to that catchy riffs (Hot Hot Heat, Futureheads, other Brit post-punk style) and solid harmonies and I think these guys could really take off sometime soon. Check their website which is really good lookin'. It's a middle class art school thing. Click for a listen or dl below. Then pick up full length as it is "off the hissey."











The Maccabees - Latchmere (Buy)

Next up was The Noisettes another band from London town (no via on their bio) but this one was pretty crap. Actually check that, next up was a 30 minutes mic check that required the help of the entirety of roadie nation. Seriously it was comical - and they still didn't get it right. Maybe this was the reason The Noisettes sucked. Maybe it was just that their songs were bad and the singer chick was all over the map - in a bad way. Bits of blues, jazz, garage, punk, indie, and others all boiled and mashed and stuck in a stew. Didn't taste too good but the presentation was decent.

Finally, the headlining Londoners (East for the record) made their appearance - and with much less down time than The Noisettes.

Energy through the roof on these chaps and the crowd (at least the ones around me) responded in kind. Blistering set, 2 encores and a lotta Kele's big smile. At one point he took off up the isle of - this is the second show here where this happened, gotta get a center isle seat next time. Here are 2 vids that I took during the show:

The main set was closed with "Like Eating Glass" - in crispy black and white!





and wrap the first encore with "Helicopter" - I think I like the B&W better though.





Bloc Party does indeed rock.












www.flickr.com











And finally check out the YRock takeover BP did whilst they were in town.

Up Next...LCD Soundsystem's free show.