{"id":295943,"date":"2025-07-27T13:17:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T13:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/295943\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T13:17:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T13:17:13","slug":"i-watched-bloc-party-at-bristols-siren-festival-and-there-was-one-poignant-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/295943\/","title":{"rendered":"I watched Bloc Party at Bristol’s Siren Festival and there was one poignant moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

It just proved that even 20 years on, Bloc Party are still bringing the tunes<\/p>\n

06:34, 26 Jul 2025Updated 12:15, 27 Jul 2025<\/p>\n

Ellie has worked as a Digital Reporter for Bristol Live, since January 2022, but has lived in Bristol all her life. She writes about anything and everything that matters to the people of her hometown – from stories about local businesses and property, to interviews with musicians both near and far, event coverage and long-reads about the people and places that make up Bristol’s communities. Prior to her role in Bristol, she worked as a Digital Reporter for Bath and Somerset’s Live titles and as an SEO Writer for Devon, Cornwall and Plymouth Live. <\/p>\n

\"BlocBloc Party kick off Siren at Bristol’s Amphitheatre on Friday (July 25)(Image: Ellie Kendall)<\/p>\n

When I was younger, I used to spend my student nights out at the likes of Propaganda at Syndicate and Ramshackle at Bristol’s O2 Academy<\/a>. Full of indie hits from the 90s, 00s and 2010s, you were guaranteed a night out in the city that was filled with some of the best music around.<\/p>\n

And Bloc Party was a band that was always played, and always got the masses partying on the dancefloor. No matter how sticky it was.<\/p>\n

Friday night (July 25) saw Bloc Party kick off Bristol’s Siren festival – a three-day music<\/a> event at the Amphitheatre – with a celebration of 20 years of their debut album ‘Silent Alarm’, alongside more tracks from their career. And it was full of nostalgia, character, and songs that had the crowd singing every word like a mantra.<\/p>\n

The setlist included hits such as Banquet, Helicopter, Mercury, and Hunting For Witches, and the indie dance moves were in full flow.<\/p>\n

Lead singer Kele, who exudes charisma and persona on stage, told gig goers that he had had a perfect day in Bristol, and many around me couldn’t get enough of the way the London singer kept saying the name of our city every time he interacted with the crowd. It was all about Bristol.<\/p>\n

The event seemed to be such a special occasion, that limited edition Bristol Amphitheatre Bloc Party t-shirts flew out of the merch tent quick-time, and the band seemed truly excited to be back on this stage in our hometown.<\/p>\n

The crowd was filled with people of multiple ages, enjoying themselves on a hot and sunny Friday evening.<\/p>\n

\"BlocBloc Party at Siren Bristol (July 25, 2025)(Image: Ellie Kendall)<\/p>\n

But it was at one point during the hour-and-a-half-long set, where a really poignant moment took place in the crowd nearby and showcased how even two decades later, these indie stalwarts are still bringing people together to dance.<\/p>\n

A group in front of us could be seen using the Shazam app to identify one of the songs in the setlist. It’s similar to some recent videos which went viral during other gigs, and they weren’t even attempting to try and hide it.<\/p>\n

Whether they were new to Bloc Party’s music, or simply couldn’t quite name that tune, you can hardly blame them for wanting to know right then and there what had had such an effect on their ears.<\/p>\n

Shazam couldn’t tell them the song in question at the time, though, and that may have been due to the sound at the Amphitheatre’s stage on the night being slightly too quiet.<\/p>\n

Despite this, by the end of the night, as Bloc Party rounded off their set with hits like This Modern Love, Little Thoughts and Banquet, I felt transported back to those carefree days at indie nights that now no longer exist in Bristol (or have moved to different venues on different days).<\/p>\n

And I could feel my shoes sticking to the Amphitheatre floor, the same way they used to on those club dancefloors and carpets. Like them, fans have truly stuck with Bloc Party – and we can’t wait for them to return to deliver another dose of indie nostalgia before our next withdrawals kick in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It just proved that even 20 years on, Bloc Party are still bringing the tunes 06:34, 26 Jul…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,920,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-295943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-events","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114925394034181980","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}