Well, this week brings a recording that has sat unedited and unshared for far too long, but with the recent announcement of a bunch of new U.S. summer headlining dates for Bloc Party, I figured now was as good a time as any to post this live set from last year here in Boston.
There are a couple reasons the urge to share this up evaded me for so very long: 1) The sound mix at the Orpheum during their set varied wildly, so my audience recording suffers for it, and 2) After initially finding things to like about Bloc Party's "A Weekend In The City" (their sophomore follow-up to the absolutely ace debut of "Silent Alarm"), it simply did not settle in very well at all. I can't remember the last time I listened to it (I still always go to "Silent Alarm" for a BP fix), and hearing them play those brilliant 2005 songs alongside the 2007 tracks really brought the missteps home for me (a caveat: "I Still Remember" still gets me).
But I'm ready and willing for their next album to win me back, so let's hope some new songs get unveiled on those few summer dates, which are listed below.
Additional Audio: The band stopped by Boston's First Act Guitar Studio last year and performed a short acoustic set, and you can download three of those songs (scroll to the bottom). And here's a little extra something for you from late night teevee...
Photos: My Flickr-hosted shots are all within this post, but you can check out a full Bloc Party Flickr tag search, or photos from that First Act acoustic session here.
the fine print... If anyone has an issue with these Mp3s being made available, just let me know (my contact info in the 'nac faq). Live sets recorded with a Sony ECM-719 mic and a Sony MZ-RH10 minidisc, converted to .wav and then edited to 192kbps Mp3s. Files are made available for a limited time, and are not reposted once removed.