Gig Review... Bloc Party @ The Ritz, Manchester, 20th June 2012

This was the second event of Bloc Party's short fan tour, dubbed by fans as 'Marshall' gigs. This was their second show after announcing their return to the live stage and also this was their first Manchester show in nearly three years.

Bloc Party opened with two songs from the upcoming album 'Four' entitled '3x3' and 'Kettling', both of which are a lot heavier than previous material, a bit more Grunge than Indie but none-the-less the fans in Manchester lapped up everything the band had to offer in the opening two songs. Next up was a rare outing for 'Trojan Horse' and fan favourite 'Waiting For The 7.18'. 'Real Talk' was another one of the new songs they played and this was slow melodic track that reminds me of pre-Silent Alarm songs such as 'Tulips' but not as light on the guitars.

'Octopus' was the next track up and this is the track that seems most likely to be a single, when you hear it live you will know why. This is the song with the delay on Russell's guitar that features on the album trailer. As such the fans loved listening to it in full, and when Russell went into a major guitar riff that you can easily see any major Rock band performing on stage in an arena, just amazing!



I am not going to bother about writing a review on the next two tracks as we all know how they go, but when they played 'Song For Clay' and then bridged it into 'Banquet' you could see the band loving the fans reactions! 'Day Four' and 'Team A' while playing those two new songs it gave the fans at the front a bit of time to relax from all of the pushing, but tha didn't last long as the next two songs are (arguably) Bloc Party's biggest, 'Helicopter' and 'One More Chance' finishing off the set.

The lads came back on stage to play a two minute track called 'Black Crown' this was hard and fast, something I am not use to this band doing. The last three songs were 'Ares', 'This Modern Love' and 'Flux'. Considering that the gig was sold as an 'intimate' gig, to which only fan club members could buy tickets, a band with the B-side credentials of Bloc Party could have done more to appease the hardcore fans. Yet I still enjoyed it none-the-less!

Bloc Party played:
3 x 3
Kettling
Trojan Horse
Waiting for the 7.18
Real Talk
Octopus
Song for Clay (Disappear Here)
Banquet
Day Four
Team A
One More Chance
Helicopter

Black Crown
Ares
This Modern Love
Flux



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