Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke in full flight on Wednesday night. Photo Treve Dromgool.

Not by a country mile, but they’re good enough to leave 2000 Kiwi fans hot, happy and sweaty on a chilly night in Manukau.

There are a lot of credible influences in Bloc Party’s music, whether it’s a conscious thing or not for the band.

Without looking at them, they produce familiar sounds and beats from a bygone era that this writer thought would never return.

But then again, rock n’ roll has a habit of recycling particular musical styles when you least expect it, usually 15-to-25 years after the original wave. Take for example the recent interest in simple 1980s techno pop, the revival and ongoing review of punk, and in the pop culture fashion basket, the sad unwanted regurgitation of the tragic flares, bellbottoms, heels and bright colours from the scraggy haired 1970s.

Bloc Party gave everything, leaving the atmosphere positively sticky humid. Photo Treve Dromgool.

New wave’s exactly what Bloc Party is about, a throwback to a heady energised time in the post-punk days of the early 1980s.

But the influences that Bloc Party have tapped into are from a swag of British bands that still stand the test of time in musical credibility and coolness.

There are many, including musicians, who growl at music writers that compare. While this is true on occasion, it’s difficult to avoid when hearing Bloc Party and knowing where they’re from: England – one of the world’s two original capitals of rock n’ roll, with its rich pedigree of producing some of popular music’s most impressive people and songs, which has rubbed off on a rockin’ group of young players who grew up listening to the tracks.

Bloc Party has a unique sound and feel of its own. But there’s no mistaking, there’s something uncannily reminiscent of the singing of The Cure’s Robert Smith in the vocal of Kele Okereke, Bloc Party’s centre of attention who also delivers clean and punchy chords on guitar.

He’s a charismatic, friendly frontman, bold enough in Manukau to urge the crowd to raise the roof off the wonderful new TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre by the end of the 90-minute set.

It doesn’t quite happen, but by the time Bloc Party has pumped out interesting composition after pounding new wave song, ending with a super tight Helicopter to the loudest roar of approval, the air’s positively sticky humid as its just above freezing outdoors.

Throughout the enjoyable show, tuneful memories of The Cure, Psychedelic Furs, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Sound, Comsat Angels and Joy Division come flooding back, groups that were once significant influences on the New Zealand music scene.

Maybe it’s the rhythm section, the way, slick fit drummer Matt Tong drives the Bloc Party train and bassist Gordon Moakes pounds the tracks in a style that can’t escape comparison to Joy Division’s backline two and a half decades ago.

Tong is a great player, in the tradition of the finest British drummers and he gives everything, losing his shirt by (about) song four. He’s only warmed up, but the saturated cloth is only in the way.

And just to show they’re fully into the serious side of new wave, they’ve also brought back those early 1980s haircuts. Guitarist Russell Lissack finely displays, with a sweeping long parted fringe as he pumps and grinds chords for high pitching melodies producing a rather large presence.

Bloc Party is regurgitating plenty of sounds and feel from post-punk new wave, when we all took things a whole lot more seriously in uneasy times. But the group is original and tight enough to keep an eye on as it progresses, which continues soon with a main stage appearance at Reading Festival later this month.