Photo courtesy of Brian Fitzsimons
Luckily enough I ended up catching Bloc Party’s set in the Big Top at the Phoenix Park, Dublin last Saturday (nuff respect for the ticket Sarah!!) For those of you unfamiliar with the venue, it’s basically a colossal (really!) tent that’s been put up beside the President’s house in Europe’s largest urban park! As a result I was expecting it to be a dreary mud-fest severely hampered by sound problems. Happily, a brilliant performance and a surprisingly clear and crisp sound system ensured I was proven wrong.
Being really late, me and my compadres (Co, Steve and Stanley) missed the first tune or two, but we quickly flung ourselves into the melee, battling through throngs of mental punters. Even though we were fairly sober, it still seemed to me that it would be an understatement to describe the gigantic (10,000 or so) crowd at this gig as hyperactive. A fairly constant flow of crowdsurfers passed over our heads as we were constantly kept on our toes by the mad bastards around us, and the wonderfully reckless mosh-pit in front of us.
The excellent “Like Eating Glass” was the first one that got me jumping (I was late, remember), and Kele and co also performed a beautiful rendition of “So Here We Are.” Although I’m not all that well versed in A Weekend in the City (I just can’t get into it as much as Silent Alarm, sorry!), “Sunday” was sweet, two drumkits were brought out for a more mellow “On” and the band also ripped through “The Prayer.” Absolute bangin highlights for me were an amazing “This Modern Love”, the absolutely insane reaction of the crowd to “She’s Hearing Voices” and one of the encore tunes, “Helicopter.” Couldn’t help myself from leggin it into the mosh for this one! Check out this brief video of “The Prayer” (courtesy of sanfeypants, ta!) for a taster of the mayhem.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
looks menthol! Did they play Flux?
I heard from friends at the gig that the equipment screwed up for Flux..which to be honest is probably a blessing in disguise.
Yup, the equipment went wrong for Flux.
Nobody gave a shit though because it’s the worst song.
Disappointed they didn’t pull an oldie out of the hat seeing as it was their biggest ever headline show. “The Marshals Are Dead” is a cracking tune – it would’ve went down a storm. “She’s Hearing Voices” was the benchmark for the night. Kele running out of the pit and into the crowd for it was pretty damn awesome.
I’ve got to big-up Foals who I thought put on a great live show. As did Biffy.
I would’ve gone just for Foals-not the biggest Bloc Party or Biffy fan but i reckon i probably would’ve enjoyed it if the crowd was as mental as Mike describes.Flux seems like their attempt at a dancefloor ‘banger’ that’ll get ‘clubs jumping’…it’s far from that.not shit,but perhaps ill-advised.
Foals were great and good crowd in for them as well (3,000?). Loved the Biffy and Bloc Party sets as well. Bloc Party have a proper full scale show now. The Foals after show at the button factory was a good ol’ laugh as well. Set was a bit loooser as you’d expect. Think the Bloc Party and Foals lads all ended up at a party in Temple Bar afterwards. Btw Foals are on Jools Holland on Friday week.