Review: Bloc Party @ AEC Theatre 04/08/25
“Though Silent Alarm is now twenty years old, modern love is timeless.”
Words Emily Wilson // Photos Justin White
Bloc Party w/Young The Giant @ AEC Theatre 04/08/25
Bloc Party functions as somewhat of a time machine. It is Monday night at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre and though we are undeniably in the year 2025, the audience, bedecked in freshly-purchased Silent Alarm merch, is cloaked in an empathic indie sleaze energy. It feels like the mid-2000s again, like if you turned on the television, an episode of Skins might be playing.
Young the Giant opens with their steadfast pop-rock. Their anthemic tunes are primed for audience sing-alongs. Their presence is gracious and their playing cohesive. When the band launches into their break-out hit ‘Cough Syrup’, the crowd nods along in unison, tapping their feet to the aching, reverberating guitar chords, their phones aloft to capture the moment. Sameer Gadhia thanks Bloc Party and makes a touching note of what a meaningfully influence Kele Okereke was to him in the early 2000s as a frontman of colour.
When Bloc Party finally graces the stage, it is with great pomp and frenzied lighting. Okereke, dazzling in his immaculate white button-down, takes the mic and introduces the band as “Bloc Party from London, England” to elated howls. All four members thrash about onstage - a buzzing but controlled chaos - and somehow maintain that keen energy for a set of twenty-one songs.
Okereke is a consummate showman. He presides over the venue with a theatrical flair, constantly engaging with the crowd, riling them up, directing them in clapping and singing along, requesting more and more energy from those cheering for him but giving it back in abundance. His voice is majestically powerful. Indeed, it is easy to forget how operatic it truly is, given how thickly it is tinged with a heavy London accent. Arms out, looking angelic in the constantly morphing light, he employs vocal acrobatics that are genuinely awe-inspiring.
READ MORE: Review: The Kooks @ Hindley Street Music Hall 04/03/25
Whenever Bloc Party performs a cut from their lauded, electrifying debut album Silent Alarm - which turns twenty this year - the crowd becomes a frothing, swarming mess. A lot of this energy can be attributed to Louise Bartle, the band’s virtuosic Adidas-clad drummer. She plays tirelessly, effortlessly. Her stamina is a wonder to behold - because surely those ferociously dynamic beats would be physically exhausting - and she plays with command and elasticism, injecting the music with acute vitality.
Okereke is playful, performing with glinting eyes and tongue-in-cheek asides, and the audience laps it right up. Songs like ‘Positive Tension’ jolt the crowd into action and he grins as hundreds of elated fans yell back to him, suddenly with their own makeshift London inflections, “Why’d you have to get so hysterical? Why’d you have to get so fucking useless?”
Though the band is largely characterised by their roaring, raucous energy, there’s a sensitivity to Bloc Party as well. This ability to shift into soft sonic poignancy shines through on songs like ‘Blue Light’, ‘Only He Can Heal Me’, and ‘Blue’. When Okereke croons, “He says he likes the way I sigh / When his hand brushes against mine,” the inherent romance in his songwriting sensibilities becomes undeniable.
Though it seems for a while like the band will never stop playing, the end is inevitable. Bloc Party closes out an encore performance with ‘This Modern Love’, a song that the audience treats like a hymn. “I’ll pay for you. Anytime.” It is a line that everyone sings, arms around each other.
A night of furious energy ends tenderly, and just after Okereke sings, “Throw your arms around me,” the band members throw their arms around each other and bow themselves out. Though Silent Alarm is now twenty years old, modern love is timeless.
Want more pics of the gig? Check out our full photo gallery here.
