If you check my Last.fm profile, you’d notice that Bloc Party is my favourite band which is quite true and not only because of the high number of scrobbles. They are also a great band live whom I’ve seen 3 times in the past.

Sadly, they decided to go on an indefinite hiatus right after their Bloctober gig in October of last year.

The great news has a side-project aside from Matt Tong who took a break completely from music. Gordon Moakes has Young Legionnaire. Russell Lissack has Pin Me Down (which is excellent by the way). And Kele Okereke has his new band called Kele. I’ve been planning on writing a proper entry for them, but you know me, I’m dead lazy.

The demand for this show was quite crazy and the tickets sold out within minutes. I’m glad I grab one for myself.

After seeing his performance in Glastonbury, I was even more excited about this gig.

The venue was something new. It was Village Underground in Shoreditch. It had a steel gate for an entrance and a shipping container for a hallway. The inside was real spacious with high ceilings and bricked walls and arches. Another one of the lovely Shoreditch venues. In my opinion, I’d pick a venue in Shoreditch over one in Camden any day. The venues in Shoreditch are simply smaller, more intimate and have a better atmosphere to it. Old Street Underground Station is not the best station and seems real dodgy really.

Support for the evening was Things I Never Told You which is a fun synth-pop band from London. Their first song was really reminiscent of ’80s synth-pop but the other songs they performed had their own character and felt a bit more modern. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with ’80s synth-pop. Go to their MySpace page and have a listen for yourself.

It took what seemed like an eternity for the next band to get setup on stage with all the fancy synths and all. Eventually, they finished up and Kele, along with his band came up on stage. As confirmed in their Glastonbury set, the girl on synths is extremely hot.

They started off the night with the first track on the album The Boxer, Walk Tall which is a song I absolutely did not like at first but has somehow grown on me. Since Kele is currently working their set from one album only, there was need to dig deep and use old favourites from Bloc Party which Kele called his “Daytime job,” an indication that they have not broken up. This was then mixed in with the more upbeat songs from the new album like Tenderoni which is the first single and Rise, which is quite a great tune.

Here’s the full setlist.

• Walk Tall
• On The Lam
• The Other Side
• Everything You Wanted
• Blue Light / The Prayer / One More Chance (Bloc Party cover/medley)
• Tenderoni
• Rise
• Yesterday’s Gone
• Your Visits Are Getting Shorter (Bloc Party cover)
• Unholy Thoughts
• Flux (Bloc Party cover) (encore)

The best parts of the night were of course the parts where they performed Bloc Party songs. The medley of Blue Light, The Prayer and One More Chance, was well put together though I wish the part of The Prayer was a bit longer. Amusingly enough, if you notice, each song is from one of Bloc Party’s albums.

I’ve never seen Bloc Party perform Your Visits Are Getting Shorter live before, so hearing it that evening made the night quite special. Flux as the encore was expected but was still pretty much crazy.

Of course, the new songs also held there own and got the crowd moving with their wicked beats and synths. On The Lam and Rise in particular, were really great live.

In a way, watching their Glastonbury set may have ruined the surprise when it came to Bloc Party songs. Also, Kele said pretty much the exact same things in between songs as what he did in Glastonbury which was pretty funny.

With Bloc Party’s last album, Intimacy, we already felt things where heading and now that Kele has the freedom to push his own style, he has created something which is pretty amazing and in a way, still gives the Bloc Party feel during live shows.