Photos of Bloc Party at 2022 Just Like Heaven in Pasadena, CA
QRO’s live review of Bloc Party at Central Park SummerStage in New York, NY on September 20th, 2019
Photos of Bloc Party at 2019 Riot Fest in Chicago, IL
Photos of Bloc Party at 2016 Life Is Beautiful in Las Vegas, NV
Photos of Bloc Party at 2016 Shaky Knees in Atlanta, GA
Photos of Bloc Party at SXSW 2016 in Austin, TX
Photos of Bloc Party at Irving Plaza in New York, NY on March 16th, 2016
Photos of Bloc Party at 2015 FYF Fest in Los Angeles, CA
Photos of Bloc Party at 2013 Governors Ball in New York, NY
Photos of Bloc Party at 2013 Arts & Crafts Field Trip Festival in Toronto, ON, Canada
Photos of Bloc Party at Emo’s East in Austin, TX on December 12th, 2012
Photos of Bloc Party at Danforth Music Hall in Toronto, ON, Canada on September 10th, 2012
After indie-rock boomed in the aughts, various acts that broke out then have taken different paths. Britain’s Bloc Party unfortunately drove into the ditch of hard electro and shouted lyrics with follow-ups A Weekend In the City (QRO review) and Intimacy (QRO review), but slowly got themselves out of that rut on Four (QRO review) and Hymns (QRO review), reembracing emotional guitars & vocals. The conflicting Blocs are still present for Alpha Games.
On one side, there is the searing loss of “Of Things Yet To Come”, and the beautiful, glowing love seen in “If We Get Caught”. On the other hand, there is the hard tech trying to be tough with “Rough Justice”. The harder side is done better on the following “The Girls Are Fighting”, but then the slow journey of closer “The Peace Offering” goes on a bit too long. There are even times where the two sides mix within a track, such as opener “Day Drinker” and “Callum Is a Snake”.
So, take the good with the band, and realize that it’ll never be 2005 again (weird to think of the George W. Bush era as the ‘good times’…).
