Bloc Party | HELICOPTER Live Glastonbury 2009
By the end of the 00’s the indie-dance-rock phase was still in fashion and guitars were still holding a place on the big stages. Festivals would boast the typical run of hip acts, The Strokes, The Killers, and of course Bloc Party. The band’s career was at an all-time high and their set at Glastonbury in 2009 captured what their debut album “Silent Alarm” did to the masses; it was instantly addicting.
“Helicopter” is a left of centre jittery and high energy indie-disco attack. It was never a big single, but felt big at the time Bloc Party was one of the key bands making trendy waves across the planet. Watching the crowd of nearly 200,000 sing along to the fidgety and excitable verses seems strange today because the music is so foreign from what’s currently considered indie. In the decade to follow Bloc Party would play to smaller rooms which diminished their punch.
But this peak performance displays how enraptured the world, especially the UK, was at the time with the band and the whole scene. The energy is electrifying and contagious.