Live Review: Bloc Party, World's End Press

Entering the Riverstage grounds, the muddy grass beneath our feet reminds us of the absolute sodden mess Brisbane has become during the past few weeks. On this evening, though, the clouds are shakily holding out above us, meaning there's no excuse but to get down with Melbourne support act du jour World's End Press. The foursome's brand of bass-fuelled indie sounds robust and throbbing as it rises up the hill. Curly flame top John Parkinson is a prize frontman, his vocal range giving tracks like Second Day Uptownloads of scope. His presence is polite but constant – a pleasure to watch. However, it's pretty goddamn hard to take your eyes off bespectacled bassist Sashi Dharann as he whips his head around, shuffles and even delivers a flawless on-the-spot running man, all while providing hip-shaking lines that take these songs to another level.

If that doesn't remove the Tuesday blues, then Bloc Party certainly does the trick, the London quartet nothing short of magnificent. A cornrowed Kele Okereke leads his troops out on stage brimming with confidence, exuding charisma from the outset. The stage set-up mimics the coloured ring cover of their latest record, Four, with a chunk of that album getting an airing tonight, including So He Begins To Lie, Team A and Coliseum. These new tracks showcase the band's revitalised love for loud guitars, and sit comfortably with other riff-centric classics plucked from their back catalogue such as Hunting For Witches and Like Eating Glass. A shirtless, jort wearing Matt Tong gives his kit an absolute pummelling during Song For Clay (Disappear Here), with the segue from that track into Banquet getting massive cheers from the remarkably still dry crowd. It's not until the main part of the set's almost concluded that we hear anything dance-heavy, One More Chance the first rave moment of the night, amplified by the striking light cutting skyward through the night.

With plenty of time still to play with before curfew, Bloc Party really go to work on us during two encores. Unreleased track Montreal and big-time banger Flux keeps hands firmly high, while This Modern Love is delivered with fistfuls of romance. Ares then spirals violently before Truth and Helicopter bring it all home, the guitars of Okereke and Russell Lissack enjoying one last duel as Gordon Moakes' back-up vocals trail out. Given the four-piece literally flew across the country and back to play this show, they could have been excused for showing some fatigue during the set. But for them to come out firing and deliver perhaps their finest performance in our city is abso-fucking-lutely incredible. Hats off lads.