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Bloc Party, Broken Social Scene, Two Gallants, and Mew Another week, another trip to Berkeley and the Greek Theater. No Top Dog this time, but we still missed the majority of openers Mew. I was reasonably stoked to see them, but had to make do with just witnessing the end of their epic closing song "Comforting Sounds". Denied of anarchist sausages, i then left V at our seats to go secure food, which ended up being fairly yummy teriyaki skewers. We ate during second opener Two Gallants, a guitar-drum two piece that i'm sure had all the kids in the audience declaring them White Stripes wannabes. Not so, they delivered some reasonably entertaining and unpredictable indie rock. Personal heroes Broken Social Scene were up third, and found ample room for their burgeoning collective on the spacious Greek Theater stage. They opened with an instrumental song laden with their lovely horns, strings, and synths, before launching a highlight from their recent self-titled album, "7/4 (Shoreline)". These guys have such fun on stage, and conjure such mesmerizing soundscapes ranging from noise collages to pop gems. Next up was "Cause=Time" from the masterpiece You Forgot It In People. Despite some curiosities of the Greek's acoustics, it was fully representative of the band's talents. Frontman Kevin Drew dedicated "Fire Eye'd Boy" to headliners and tour partners Bloc Party, of whom Kele could be seen taking in the show on the side of the stage. The second half of the performance included the crescendo of "Stars and Sons" and the whirlwind "Superconnected". The set closed with the sprawling 10 minute "It's All Gonna Break" that left me in awe. The only way their set could've been better was if the two yammering c@#ts beind us would've shut the hell up for a few minutes. Bloc Party took a while to come on stage as it seemed Kele's array of pedal effects was malfunctioning, a problem it took roughly ten roadies to fix. This is the third time i've seen the band in support of their debut album Silent Alarm. While certainly a great record, i'm not really sure i need to see them continue playing the same songs. A sense of "ho hum" pervaded our party, even with die hard Bloc Party fan Veronica who conceded that the Londoners couldn't compete with the energy and spirit of the Canadians who preceded them. Their songs maintain their resonance, but the sense of familiarity coupled with the aforementioned acoustic problems (which wreaked havoc with Kele and Russell's synergy on "Banquet") put a damper on the set. I was surprised that they didn’t perform "Two More Years", the single released in late 2005 ostensibly to bridge the first and second albums. Instead they stuck to Silent Alarm, with a few new songs thrown in which to me bordered on mind-numbingly boring. We can only hope they have some new tricks up their sleeve on their sophomore record. Despite my well-deserved reputation as a hater, i sincerely hope they do … it'd be a damn shame to think that the passion and composition of "Like Eating Glass" was a fluke. After fighting our way out of the venue and the congested traffic in northside, we gave Jenz and Jocelyn a ride back to SF, stopping for the second week in succession at Nation's for a late night meal.
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