Lead singer, Kele Okereke of Bloc Party, a U.K. well-established band, rocked the traditional West African shirt at a recent Terminal 5 show on March 25th. Longtime Brooklyn band Longwave opened up and I will tell you, they seemed a little bitter about it. I guess I would feel conflicted about the gig if I were them too - you have been around for years but make a solid comeback in late 2008 with a new album after a long hiatus and you get to rock a really large crowd right on your turf but instead of claiming victory you get a crowd that just chants 'Bloc Party' at you throughout the entire bloody set. Sorry Longwave. Your songs sounded great, like a Guster + Kings of Leon combo, but I don't think you needed to remind the crowd that you weren't Bloc Party, you sounded a bit too miffed for getting paid to rock.
At 9:40pm the fairly young and packed crowd got what they wanted. Within the first three songs the musicianship of Kele Okereke was clearly on display - singer, lead guitar, and a master of the peddles. There is something about their sound that really could only come from outside of the U.S. but I can't quite express why, so just go see them live. The bonus is that the drummer looks just like John Lennon's son Sean, they had great lighting, and they know how to get a crowd bumping - 2 sets and an encore that ended with Kele doing a full on crowd surf while still singing. They are what I call a cool dude band = I will give any guy credit that say they really like Bloc Party.
Kele made me a happy lass by playing 'Modern Love' and 'Blue Light' from their Silent Alarm album and best of all, they were so good it gave me reason to NOT return to Terminal 5 for a long time, if ever. Sorry for all you good acts that will play there, I just can't make it to that hell hole to see you.
Thanks to the staff of big blog Brooklyn Vegan for getting there early with a really nice camera and taking this photo. I was getting drunk en route on the Subway with my visiting brother.
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