Bloc Party (cc: Rachael Wright)
Before Bloc Party headed to Las Vegas for Life Is Beautiful music festival, they stopped by Observatory North Park to shake San Diego up.
East London art punkers Bloc Party gave San Diego something to remember. They started the night playing “Only He Can Heal Me” followed by “So Real”, two tracks off their new album, Hymns, and the crowd was slow to warm up. Lead singer and guitarist Kele Okereke,yelled out to the almost static crowd: “San Diego, are you FUCKING ready to dance?” The lights swirled over the crowd, shifting the energy into the sweaty dance party that Okereke wanted as Bloc Party transitioned into “She’s Hearing Voices”, the electrifying track off of Silent Alarm.
And thus, a mosh pit started…typical San Diego.
Bloc Party (cc: Rachael Wright)
In 2013, the band went on a hiatus for a few years, but eventually revamped in 2015 with two new band members and a headlining spot at FYF in Los Angeles. In 2016, Hymns brought out newer, much slower and dance-y vibrations than we’d heard during their formative punk-centric years. As “Banquet” started to play, the venue shook as the crowd sang along poorly (and admirably). A few songs later, they tried to fool the crowd by playing “Flux” at the end of their first encore but that obviously was not going to be the closer.
They came out for a second encore, as the guitar riffs for “Helicopter” began, you could feel the nostalgia from the crowd as fans sang along and started to shake their heads swiftly from side to side, truly feeling like they’re hoping for a miracle. The band slowed things down with “This Modern Love” whom Okereke gave a shout out to one of Observatory’s employees that used the song as their wedding song.