Spring is here, but it sure felt like summer inside a hot and sweaty 9:30 Club last night. Bloc Party packed their arena worthy show inside the cozy confines of 815 V St NW and banged out a show to remember. The outcome of the night was never really in doubt once lead singer Kele Okereke stepped on stage wearing a Clinton Portis jersey. The man clearly knows how to play to his audience. About…

Bloc Party (l to r: Matt Tong, Gordon Moakes, Kele Okereke and Russell Lissack) Speaking strictly as a music fan, it’s been fun to watch Bloc Party grow as a band. I still remember their first area show, in April of 2005 at the Black Cat, as one of the most energetic (and crowded) shows I’ve ever seen in that venue. They were back in D.C. just two months later selling out the 9:30…

The morning after seeing Toronto’s Metric, I had a brief water-cooler conversation with a co-worker who had caught the band the last time they rolled through town. “I’ve always been surprised how quickly that band blew up,” he said. “It seems like they got huge almost overnight.” I nodded in agreement, having seen them fill a 1,200-capacity club the night prior. After giving the matter some thought, however, I realized that Metric’s rise to the…

Happy first weekend of September – and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let’s take a look at what’s been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston’s firefighters bent over backwards all week long – first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else – like Tom…

I arrived to a half filled Black Cat last night, unsure what to expect from Danish superstars Mew. Their album, And The Glass Handed Kites, was one of the most interesting albums I heard last year, their fey yet bruising style of jangle prog a combination of Jeff Buckley’s tenderest falsetto moments and the whiplash of Bloc Party’s best Wedding Present imitation in one album that sequences connecting songs to great effect. However, the…

It was quite the party last night at the Black Cat, full of skeezy mustached men (think 70s porn) and hyperactive girls in tutus (think Dakota Fanning plus Red Bull). Under normal circumstances, this is probably a law suit waiting to happen, but it turned out to be one of the most entertaining shows by all three acts on a bill that we have seen in some time. You know you are in for a…

If you ponied up for Panic! At The Disco tickets mainly because of the awesome drumming prowess of opener Bloc Party’s Matt Tong, you might want to start seeing what you can get for those bad boys on Craigslist. Bloc Party has been forced to pull out of three shows — including tomorrow night’s at the Patriot Center — because Tong is hospitalized with a collapsed lung. It’s hard to imagine anything bringing down Tong,…

It all started with a mysterious mention on Pitchfork of a Gnarls Barkley date at Pimlico. Yes, that Pimlico. That lead The Upstate Life to do a little research. The mysterious event, taking place on September 23, will also feature The Raconteurs, and is called V Fest. We’re hoping that this is an American version of the UK’s Virgin-sponsored annual event, which this year will feature acts like Radiohead, Beck, The Dandy Warhols, Bloc Party…

This review is by DCist Staff Writer Jacques Ntonme. It is common for rockers to dabble in guitar albums. The Metallicas and Van Halens of our period, however, rarely truly achieve the guitar album because they get caught up in silly solos, vamping, or their own long hair. Other heirs to the empty throne of Hendrix, such as Bloc Party, rock but lack radically novel ambitions. Perhaps it’s because they’re focusing on making rock music…

Local band Army of Me are in the process of signing with Atlantic Records, the label Bloc Party and Bjork (among others) call home. They’ve been gaining a strong following in the D.C. area and beyond, thanks to tireless gigging and promotion over the past 7 years or so. The boys leave on February 6 to start recording their new album, bidding farewell to D.C. Congratulations to local guys done good; we’ll always remember where…