French website La Blogoteque has made the idea of asking bands to play outside their normal confines into an art form. From Architecture in Helsinki running through the streets, to Arcade Fire playing in an elevator before walking straight into a crowd, to Sufjan Stevens playing on a roof. All live, all (reasonably) impromptu and all revealing a more human side of the artists involved.

Nowhere more so than in their latest installment featuring Bloc Party. On an October night while recording German band Get Well Soon somewhere in Paris, the La Blogoteque team heard a rumour that Bloc Party might be having drinks in a nearby pub after their secret show earlier in the night. Sure enough the cameraman and crew managed track them down, and after much cajoling, coaxed the reticent band away from their drinks with the idea of performing live in the laneway. From the crew's website:

"While the Germans were playing, Kele Okereke popped out of the bar. He was standing next to me, asked who were the guys singing, and what they were doing here. I told him it was a Take Away Show, and he said, shyly "Oh great, that’s good". I patted him on the back, joked "Hey, good timing, after that, it’s your turn !"

We’d been told it would not be easy. A year before, we already tried to set a Take Away Show with them in London, with the support of JD Beauvallet, but nothing could convince them : they never play acoustic, they’re very shy, it’s impossible. 

So, back to the present, on October 14th, we tried harder.We had some help. Matthieu, of Coop, was drunk and happy. Both the band’s managers were drunk and happy. We were drunk and happy, and that’s how Kele found himself pressed against a wall, facing a dozen of enthusiastic people, urging him to play a song."

The result is a nervous, acoustic and beautiful take on Silent Alarm favourite 'Modern Love'. And ironically, one that manages to be way more revealing than anything on Intimacy.

 

Bloc Party - 'Modern Love'