Kele – Village Underground, London 06/07/2010

08 July 2010, 13:38 | Written by Catriona Boyle

(Live)

From the still-smouldering ashes of indie giants Bloc Party it is lead singer Kele Okereke who has emerged most phoenix like.

Kele Okereke – stroppy lead singer of Bloc Party’s emergence as Kele – talkative, assured solo artist, has seen him literally come out fighting – with a super honed physique and an album entitled The Boxer.

The band members immediate moves post-Bloc Party have been telling as to what caused the implosion. Guitarist Russell Lisseck has joined indie stalwarts Ash, although interestingly also forming electronica duo Pin Me Down, Gordon has a band with Paul Mullen (The Automatic / Yourcodenameis:milo), and Kele, as predicted, cast aside his guitar and picked up a drum machine.

For his first official London show, Shoreditch warehouse The Village Underground is heaving and sweating, filled with predominantly Bloc Party fans, with a handful of those simply curious, and a three page guestlist . Despite his confidence and self-affirmation, his album didn’t quite hit the mark as a piece of dance/electronica, and his fans hail firmly from the indie camp rather than further a(left)field.

So with the heritage of Bloc Party behind him, Kele strides onstage to a rapturous audience, who, though not quite sure what to expect, seem eager to lap up anything Kele would care to throw at them (including his baseball cap, about three songs in).

He is performing tonight with his new band – a drummer and another two on keyboards/synths/boxes with buttons and knows – but they are merely accompanists – Kele rules the roost and rules the stage.

Beginning with, album opener ‘Walk Tall’, with raging strobe lights and a knee-trembling bass, the pace for tonight’s high-octane show is set.

Undoubtedly one of the most interesting things about this show is the way the audience reacts – most of them are clearly far more used to a moshpit than arms in the air raving – and whilst some of them embrace it with open, aloft arms, the self-conscious indie kid mechanism seems to kick in, and some of them don’t seem to quite know what to do with themselves.

With just one album under his belt, Kele’s material is a little thin on the ground, so he bulks it up, much to the audience’s delight, with a few Bloc Party tracks – from his ‘day job band’. Three tracks are given a mash-up-medley treatment, including a haunting snippet of Blue Light. There are full renditions of tracks from Bloc Party’s latter releases – ‘Your visits Are Getting Shorter’ is give a down and dirty makeover, and ‘One More Chance’ sounds like it could’ve been lifted straight from The Boxer.

Lead single ‘Tenderoni’ is dropped slap bang in the middle of the set – not leaving the crowd waiting for it but whipping them into a frenzied mass to continue the rest of the show on a high. This is the one track that seems to get absolutely everyone involved, recognisable, accessible, and the trademark for Kele’s new identity.

Kele leaves the stage after a brief set stretching barely an hour with two encores, and the smell of sweat is rife in the air as the crowd clamber to get out through the one narrow door. But there’s also another heady scent – and that’s the smouldering Bloc Party. Whilst omitting any of his band’s back catalogue might’ve annoyed his audience, Kele’s reliance on it is somewhat telling that this is clearly just the beginning for him, and whilst he cuts a striking figure on stage, he needs to really hone his new sound to avoid returning to the day job.