Kele – Kings Arms March 21, 2015

Bloc Party front man Kele Okereke took the solo route to Auckland’s Kings Arms on Saturday night. When he finally showed up, it was with a lap top, and not a guitar in sight.

Two years ago, Kele was leading his band through a raging set in front of a sold out audience at the Powerstation. Things were much more sedate now.

When I arrived at the Kings Arms at 9:30, for a supposed 10:00 start time, the crowd was fairly thin. When 10 o’clock rolled around, there was no sight of Kele, just DJ Phil Hadfield, alone on the stage staring down at his laptop, playing some rather mediocre music.

Then the word went out, Kele will be on at 10:30…no, wait, 10:45.

Finally at 11:10 Kele made his way to the stage, wearing a pair of blue and green shorts and a black T-shirt and clutching a microphone. Hadfield reinstated himself behind the laptop and they began with Coasting, a tune from Kele’s second solo album, Trick, the only visual was some images projected over and behind Kele and his compatriot.

But the long wait didn’t leave this Saturday night audience in a partying mood and the energy level was low. Part of the problem might have been the over-abundance of reverb on Kele’s mic, making his vocal largely unintelligible during the first song.

Fortunately the sound problems were worked out by the second tune.

“Good evening, Auckland, my name is Kele and I’m from England”, the hulking singer announced, “”It’s time to get closer”.

And with that we, indeed heard Closer, also from Trick.

The beats started to pound harder and Kele’s singing got more passionate as the set progressed.

“It’s time to take you to church”, he insisted before the gospel-tinged Doubt.

But church was not where the fans wanted to be on Saturday night and by the time Kele got to Candy Flip, the place felt more like a sweaty London night club.

This was followed by a couple of Bloc Party tunes, with One More Chance proving to be one of the night’s highlights.

After a somewhat unsteady start, Kele had won over the crowd and a good time was had by all who attended. The hour-long set finished with Rise, a tune from Kele’s first solo album, The Boxer.

He was called back for an encore and performed Stay The Night, introducing it as, “my favourite song from Trick”. It turned out to be mine as well thanks to its more intimate nature and heartfelt delivery.

It was a very different performance from two years ago…which, no doubt is exactly what Kele wanted, exposing a much more personal side while giving his fans an opportunity to have a bit of a rave rather than rocking out.

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Elton McAleer:

Kele set list:

1. Coasting
2. Closer
3. My Hotel Room
4. Like WE Used To
5. Doubt
6. Everything You Wanted
7. Humour Me
8. Candy Flip
9. Obscene
10. One More Chance
11. Tenderoni
12. Rise
13. Stay The Night