SleepingPoliceman

courtest of indietastic.net

This has taken forever to write. I’ll try to be somewhat brief, since otherwise I may never finish.

I faced a conundrum a couple of Wednesdays ago, as there were two shows in the Boston area that I was interested in checking out. One was Snow Patrol, Silversun Pickups and OK Go at the Agganis Arena, and the other was Bloc Party and Albert Hammond Jr. at the Orpheum. Of the groups, I have the most affinity for Bloc Party; but, as you may recall, I saw them last summer and haven’t seen any of the other bands. Plus, I don’t care about Albert Hammond Jr, whereas I’d be interested in all the bands on the other bill. I hemmed and hawed (hawwed?), and eventually decided to not spend money on either of the shows until the day was nigh.

So when the day arrived, I trawled around on Craig’s List and found someone selling a single ticket to Bloc Party for five dollars below face (and, like, $18 below the final Ticketmaster gouging price). A couple of emails, a meeting was arranged by Park Street , and I was on my way. I met up, we made the exchange, we both talked of how our respective girlfriends couldn’t make the show, and we went our separate ways. Excellent Craig’s List transaction…fun times.

I then took a brief detour to go to a Newbury Comics that closes at 7pm (it was 7:15 when I got there…useless) and to get updates about incompetent Comcast sales representatives. Annoying on all counts. Then I went to the Orpheum and took my seat as the first opening act played.

The first act was some dude named Sebastien Grainger. His set was completely inconsequential. The guitarist and singer (presumably Mr. Grainger) kept turning his back to the audience to play his little solos, and wore very white clothes with suspenders. It was like an indie rocker’s “My First Freddie Mercury” costume set. The music wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good. It was. Then he stopped.

Between acts, the theater started filling up with obnoxious late high school and college kids, the same type who filled the Pavilion last summer. The row behind me was filled with four guys and six girls, looking like they just came out of an A&F catalog, talking about how craaaaaaazy it is that they’re so close to graduation. I have no idea if they were graduating from high school or college. I just know they were annoying, taking self portraits with their digital cameras left and right and saying how much they love their lives. They can all go to hell.

Second opening act, as mentioned, was Albert Hammond Jr., the guitarist from the Strokes. He had the same rocker fuzzy hair as always, and he had his guitar hiked up really high like he was an early George Harrison. His band was solid, and the songs were pretty good. Not so good that I wanted to run out and buy the album or even illegally download it…but it was pleasing. And he had a side guitarist who really acted out being a rock star, jumping up and down, doing splits, and playing half a song on his back. Good showmanship. I was hoping to hear Last Nite; that didn’t happen, though. Alas.

Sidenote on Al: two of the drunk 18 year olds (I decided they were high school students, by the way) behind me were annoyed that they didn’t know who this band was. They asked everyone around them, in loud shrieky voices, “Do you know who the hell this is? Who IS this?” I think they thought they were hot enough that people wouldn’t be annoyed by them. I knew who Albert Hammond was…in fact, I was texting Manlio about it. When they asked me, I told them I didn’t know. Because screw them.

So they finished, there was some more blah-blah time in between. Another sidenote: what sort of protocol is there when you buy a single ticket off someone else from Craig’s List, and you end up sitting next to them at a show? The guy I bought the ticket from was nice and all, but I had no desire to hold any conversation with him. Nor he with me, thankfully. But there was a lot of down-time, and we were just sitting there with a bunch of nattering idiots around us. Thank God for text messaging.

Finally, Bloc Party hit the stage. They opened with Song For Clay, the opener from their new album. Everyone was pumped, and the crowd was cheering and singing along loudly. After that, they went right into Positive Tension, which once again had everyone shouting out the “so fucking useless” part with gusto. The performance of the songs didn’t seem as high energy as I wanted it to be. I think that it took me a couple of songs to get over the fact that I was sitting five rows from the back, not five rows from the stage (as I was last summer). It’s always great to be able to look out over the crowd between you and the stage, seeing them clap and jump and sway. But the sightlines aren’t the best in the back of the Orpheum, and la la la…I was a little spoiled from the first concert.

Actually, I was very spoiled. I sort of wanted the same rush of a new experience this time around. But…you know, you can’t really get that feeling when it’s no longer new. Between the seat location, the tall dude standing two rows in front of me, and the not-new-again feeling, I was a little let down. I don’t think this is the band’s fault…they were doing a great show.

But I readjusted my expectations, and I fell more into the groove of the show. I think the shift happened on Waiting For The 7.18, which I was glad to hear again, now that I actually knew it. The “Give me moments” sections really clicked. From there, it was a quick 1-2-3-4 of Banquet, I Still Remember, This Modern Love and The Prayer. Banquet rocked, and got one of the biggest audience receptions of the night. I really like seeing the dual-guitar work on the main riff. It’s the simple things sometimes. The performance of I Still Remember probably had the best live-version-exceeding-expectations score of the night, and it made me realize that it’s an incredibly great pop song. The backing vocals, which were a little muddy and under-micced all night, worked very well here. This Modern Love was, as always, fantastic. I think everyone else was singing along loudly…I couldn’t tell, because I was singing too loudly myself. And The Prayer kept the groove going through the whole theatre.

Next was Uniform, which was a good performance, but a bit of a momentum killer. I don’t know if that’s the fault of the song, or if the issue was that it followed such a great string of performances. After it was over, though, they busted into So Here We Are. I’ve always liked the song, but I was swept up in it more than I expected…it shimmered out under blinking lights and swept out nicely, like a gentle wave over the crowd. The calls of “I can see again!” was one of those communal concert moments, and was the unlikely highlight of the show.

The quiet outro of that song transitioned nicely into Like Eating Glass, which was a great closer for the first set. (It sort of goes without saying that all the songs from the first album got a bigger, louder reception from the crowd. I hope that doesn’t mean people are undervaluing their new record…it may not be just as good, but it’s a great album.) The break between the sets wasn’t too long, and during it, the roadies came out and set up a second drum set. I didn’t have to wonder why for too long…the first encore song, Sunday, featured the bass player on the second drum set. As you may know, I’m a sucker for double drums, so I was way down.

A solid She’s Hearing Voices (with another trip by lead singer Kele Okereke into the crowd, as he did last summer…and, yes, even though I knew it hadn’t been totally spontaneous last year, it was a little disappointing to see that it was a regular scripted thing), and then Pioneers, the song which ended the last show I saw. I was a little let down that they weren’t going to play Helicopter, a tune which had really grown on me in the past six months. But I was still content, singing along “We will not be the last” as Pioneers ended. It’s a perfect show closer.

But then Kele said, “we have one more for you,” and before I even had a chance to hope, the ripping dual guitar riff of Helicopter. He didn’t even bother singing the first four lines…he just stood at the microphone, and pointed up in the air to have the crowd sing it for him. Tremendous.

Overall, the show was a great time. Not as great as their show last summer…but I don’t think that was because of them as much as it was because of me. Considering the cheapness of the ticket, and the relative last-minute planning of it all, it was a great way to spend a Wednesday night. And it certainly increased my opinion that Bloc Party are laying the groundwork for a long, worthwhile career, potentially as one of the top bands for the forseeable future.

Setlist, compliments of indietastic.net

Song For Clay (Disappear Here) / Positive Tension / Blue Light / Hunting For Witches / Waiting For The 7.18 / Banquet / I Still Remember / This Modern Love / The Prayer / Uniform / So Here We Are / Like Eating Glass

Encore: Sunday / She’s Hearing Voices / Pioneers / Helicopter

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 22nd, 2007 at 5:31 pm by ptm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.