Bloc Party: Sydney Treated To Fantastic 20th Anniversary Set of Undeniable Indie Classics

Only a week after we were treated to the Hives at the Enmore, Sydney’s hosting garage revival peers Bloc Party’s opening shows of their 2025 Australian tour. They’re playing two shows at the Hordern for what is a 20-year celebration of their iconic debut album Silent Alarm.

Silent Alarm’s legacy has undoubtedly outgrown its initial commercial impact. While reaching number 3 on the UK charts, it only reached number 30 in Australia. Approximately 10,000 tickets sold over two nights in Sydney alone tell a re-written story of their impact.

They were last here in 2023 on a co-headline tour with New Yorkers Interpol, where they also played a couple of shows at the Hordern. Lead singer Kele Okereke and lead guitarist Russell Lissack are the two remaining founding members, with more recent additions on drums and bass.

It’s a miserable rainy winter’s night in Sydney, and the pub next door in the Entertainment Quarter is full of concert-goers huddled by electric heaters in the beer garden. As we pile into the venue it’s not much warmer, coats remain on bodies all around the Hordern.

I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with the venue. They book some incredible acts and the industrial aesthetic looks great, but the atmosphere has lacked at most of the shows I’ve seen here. I suppose that’s one of the trade-offs you have to make when you want to see large bands in large venues.

Young the Giant are supporting, and they sound clean. It’s a brand of pop music that’s pretty inoffensive, but sounds fun in its own way. The sound quality is good, and I’m feeling optimistic for when Bloc Party are due to come on at 9pm.

During the openers, while the venue is sparsely full, the venue doesn’t actually look that big. Once the crowd piles in between sets, it suddenly looks like a massive space when you realise just how many people are here.

My friend and I are parked up in the middle, probably 20 people back when the band saunters out. They open with one of the bigger songs off This Silent Alarm, So Here We Are.

The sound is fantastic. Not like when you get the all-enveloping sound of a small-medium sized venue, but it sounds clean and polished.

From the get-go you can tell that the crowd are more interested in standing and admiring the music than getting particularly involved with moshing or dancing.

Kele is doing a great job as the frontman however, he’s super expressive and charismatic. The rest of the band are playing super tight.

The first real rise from the crowd comes mid-set with Banquet, an absolute, undeniable indie classic. I used to bartend at a small live music venue and you’d be hard-pressed to find an indie DJ set where this track didn’t sneak in.

Like Eating Glass also gets the crowd hopping. And so it should, it’s a thumping tune that’s got this atmospheric but high-tempo energy about it.

The encore is truly stacked out, with classics Helicopter, Ratchet and This Modern Love. This Modern Love is a personal favourite, and I’m glad I finally got to see it performed live.

The band bid their farewells and the 5,000 or so of us make our way for the exits back into the drizzly winter’s night.

The band were fantastic, and although the crowd weren’t super lively I think this can be attributed in large part to the venue’s structure as a large cavernous space.

In saying that, I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling a lot of memories come rushing back throughout the set. It was a pleasure to see Bloc Party treat us with some classics for an evening.