Review: Bloc Party at Perth HPC
Bloc Party at Perth HPC
w/ Young the Giant
Wednesday, August 6, 2025
Two more years? It’s less than that since Bloc Party played an uncharacteristically forgettable show at Red Hill Auditorium, but on Wednesday they reminded us all why, at their peak, they’re still an essential live band.
The newly named Perth HPC (it stands for Perth High Performance Centre) worked a treat. With an intense lighting rig making full use of the dark indoor setting and a full catalogue of hits, the Londoners celebrated 20 years since the release of their debut album, Silent Alarm, playing nine songs from it alongside 11 cuts from their five records since.
Unlike their 2018 tour of Silent Alarm, this wasn’t a back-to-front album tour. Opening on So Here We Are, it was quickly apparent this setlist was designed for stadiums. The Joy Division post-punk of She’s Hearing Voices made it two from two, before a left turn on 2007’s Hunting for Witches dropped three tracks in, exemplifying the terrific guitar interplay between guitar god Russell Lissack and frontman Kele Okereke all night.
Mercury pushed harder left, although according to an astrologer friend, the closest planet to the sun is indeed in retrograde this week, so why not? Price of Gasoline, meanwhile, remains as relevant as it was 20 years ago, and Blue Light scored the first of many big crowd singalongs.
So far so good… But things were about to lift. With a snippet of Sneaker Pimps’ Spin Spin Sugar replacing its usual intro, Song for Clay (Disappear Here) roared to life around the venue, bringing the lighting rig to life in an insane display. Capitalising on the moment by segueing directly into Banquet, it was the night’s most electric moment.
Everything seemed to look and sound better than recent visits, with Different Drugs featuring a wall-of-sound guitar arrangement from Lissack and The Love Within rocking the dance floor. Queer anthem Blue was described by Okereke as a “true love song,” while The Prayer was an unstoppably uplifting highlight.
But it was the Silent Alarm songs that we were truly in love with, the heaving masses shouting “And your nose is bleeding!” back at the lead singer during Luno, while album opener Like Eating Glass closed the main set and is still an absolute belter.
A solid five-song encore kicked off with bassist Harry Deacon on xylophone for the uplifting ballad Signs, while his backing vocals on Two More Years complimented Okereke nicely. Whilst Flux lacked its usual array of lasers, Helicopter revisited the fit-inducing lighting attack from Song for Clay earlier in the night in yet another Silent highlight.
It all left This Modern Love to close proceedings in a comparatively gentle, moving singalong. Putting the blistering guitars and lights to one side for this lyrical standout was a reminder of Bloc Party’s range… and mostly across just one landmark album.
Is it really a Silent Alarm tour without Positive Tension? Maybe, maybe not, but after 20 tracks this good, no one was complaining on the way out (at least not until we were stuck in traffic for 40 minutes leaving the venue; it may be renamed The HPC, but the old Superdrome parking problems remain the same as ever).
Earlier, Californian arena rockers Young the Giant showed why stadium sounds are best served live. With an earnest set of anthems that make far more sense in concert, the Jimmy Eat World-referencing emo of Cough Syrup and charismatic dancing from singer Sameer Gadhia during My Body were upstaged only by his mighty voice lifting the likes of Waves to greater heights.
HARVEY RAE
Photos by Stu McKay
