Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke played his first ever solo show last night (May 14) in Ireland.
Mixing new songs from his forthcoming debut ‘The Boxer’ with a handful of remixed tracks from Bloc Party‘s back catalogue, the show in Limerick marked the unveiling of his new, dance-orientated musical direction.
Prior to his arrival on stage, everyone in the crowd at Dolan‘s Warehouse was encouraged to pick up a free shot of Jagermeister in order to share a toast with Kele, who announced, “It’s a special occasion, so I thought I’d buy everyone a drink!” when he arrived shortly after 10.30pm.
With many of the crowd unsure what to expect from the show, during proto-dubstep opener ‘Walk Tall’ the audience remained relatively still until Kele followed it up with ‘On The Lam’.
After a handful of new tracks – including ‘The Other Side’, which was momentarily interrupted after Kele feared a crowd member had stolen his maracas – he indulged his fans with a medley of remixed Bloc Party songs, culminating in a rapturously received ‘One More Chance’.
The biggest cheer of the evening was reserved for Kele‘s debut solo single ‘Tenderoni’, which saw the singer mount a high speaker stack before nearly losing his footing.
Only once during the show did the singer perform on guitar, for new song ‘Unholy Thoughts’,
before he played new song ‘Rise’ and returned for the encore which culminated in Bloc Party‘s single ‘Flux’, which he referred to as “a song by a band I used to be in”.
Kele played:
‘Walk Tall’
‘On The Lam’
‘Meet Me In The Middle’
‘The Other Side’
‘Everything You Wanted’
‘Blue Light’
‘The Prayer’
‘One More Chance’
‘Tenderoni’
‘Unholy Thoughts’
‘Rise’
‘All The Things’
‘Flux’
