Bloc Party at the Mayan

Bloc Party are very cunning... take a support band on tour that is so bad that whatever you do will sound brilliant. The band in question is 'Does it offend you yeah?' They did offend me because they were fucking awful... When nu-rave came out it sounded like an interesting concept but 30 seconds into some 'Shit Disco' song or other I realised it was crap. Shit music, shit clothes, shit disco. 'Does it offend you yeah?' are great spokesmen for the dead in the water movement that is nu-rave - deafeningly loud and wouldn't know a tune if it crawled up their shell suits and bit them in the bum...

Talking of shit clothes, red shorts and a white Obama T-shirt isn't a great look - you haven't got the legs for it Kele! Still, it makes a difference from the pastel Lacostes... Anyways, Bloc Party sounded great after DIOYY and it was actually a good show... I wouldn't say I'm a fan exactly, the music (like the live show) is all smoke and mirrors to me, reflections of Robert Smith in Kele Okereke's vocals and the music is stuck in an early 80's timewarp somewhere between early Bunnymen and Adrian Borland's The Sound. For current bands playing this type of stuff I would choose Editors any day. Bloc Party are best when they step outside their comfort zone and take a break from the duelling 100 mph guitar riffs that dominate songs such as Helicopter and Hoping for a miracle. A good example is Mercury, which has room to breathe and shows what Bloc Party could sound like if they went down the dub route, a good direction to take...