I made the trip way uptown Saturday night to see
Bloc Party at the
United Palace, the church/theatre best known for being
Reverend Ike's HQ, which is now booking rock shows.
The building itself is absolutely beautiful, with an insane amount of fancy latticework, art, and ornaments throughout.
The place is amazingly easy to get to, only a couple blocks from a stop on the
A line, and about a minute from the George Washington Bridge if you are coming in from Jersey. The downside is that street parking is very tough to find, and the parking lots near the Palace jack their rates up to $30(!!) on nights of events. Cash only.
The show itself was pretty great, and featured two of the best openers I've seen on the same bill in a while.
Sebastien Grainger (formerly of Death From Above 1979) played a set of bass-heavy rock songs a bit hookier than those of his previous band, none of which would have sounded out of place on rock radio, should such a thing still exist. I can't wait to hear what his album's gonna sound like.
Albert Hammond, Jr. turned in a set of songs from his solo debut that, although sound not a million miles away from his Strokes songs, are somehow more immediately enjoyable. His solo tunes seem a bit more pop-song based and less new-wave-for-new-wave's-sake than what we've heard from his other band lately. And the crowd seemed to love him.
Bloc Party was Bloc Party. A solid, great sounding set, and the newer, more anthemic songs sounded fantastic in the larger building. Kele seems to be coming out of his shell a bit more as a front man, but it's not like he's turning into Pelle from The Hives anytime soon.
The security guys did something cool at this show that I've never seen before. After the third song, they chased the accredited photographers out of the 10-foot area between the stage and the first row, and actually walked up to people at their seats in the front and on the aisles and told them it was cool to approach the stage, turning that photo walkway into a bonafide pit. The crowd loved it as the area filled with pogo-ers and ass-shakers, and the closeness of the fans made the band turn the energy level up a notch as well.
All-in-all it was a great night, but next time I go up there I'm street-parking downtown and taking the train. That $30 could have bought me and the missus a lot of beer.
Scatter o'light has the scoop on Friday night's show
here.
Bloc Party:
Sebastien Grainger:
Sebastien Grainger - "When You Go Out"
mp3Albert Hammond, Jr. - "In Transit"
mp3Bloc Party - "Helicopter (Whitey Remix)"
mp3
Kele from Bloc Party is special guest DJ tonight at Robot Rock at Le Royale. One of the nicest dudes in the biz, Kele's also one of the few musicians who can actually spin a great set.
In response to a call for help from Waxploitation honcho Jeff Antebi, a cornucopia of excellent artists have contributed exclusive and rare tracks to the first installment of the Causes album series, to benefit a trio of three very worthy humanitarian organizations with focus on aiding the crisis in Darfur.
The fine folks at Scion want to give ten lucky extrawack! readers a copy of their latest fly mix CD, presented by Vice Records and mixed by Flosstradamus, featuring Bloc Party, Chromeo, Charlotte Gainsbourg and more.
Speaking of Scion, they are hosting a free Ghostface Killah show at Highline Ballroom on Monday night as part of their Scion Live Metro Tour. I saw Ghost perform at a Scion event at Stubb's during SXSW this past March, and he did indeed kill.
I made the trip way uptown Saturday night to see Bloc Party at the United Palace, the church/theatre best known for being Reverend Ike's HQ, which is now booking rock shows.
