Florence and the Machine

For more than two hours, concertgoers were treated to a cosmically-charged performance that felt totally removed from time and place. Opening with Dance Fever’s (the band’s fifth album) ‘Heaven is Here’, a song that leans heavily on religious destruction and the chasm between heaven and hell, lead singer Florence Welch began to whisk listeners on a genre-crossing voyage of Baroque pop, pastoral folk and indie rock.

The flame-haired singer took to the stage (as she always so effortlessly does) in a nymph-like way, prancing about barefoot and gesticulating wildly in her blue-laced gown and fanning her bellowing sleeves – like a 21st-century Stevie Nicks. Against the backdrop of a shrine of wax candles, there was plenty of religious iconography to spot in a set that wrestled with life, death, image and addiction.  

It was only six songs in and halfway through her performance of ‘Dog Days Are Over’ that Welch finally introduced herself and the band to her fans. “This may be the first time you’ve seen us perform,” she hollered. “And you might be thinking: Is it a cult? Am I safe? My advice to you… is just let it happen, do everything I say, and you’ll be just fine.”

The ‘You Got the Love’ singer then launched into an impassioned plea for ditching phones, “or as they say in South London,” she reminded, “put your fucking phones away!” Welch encouraged fans to instead jump as high and for as long as they could and to bask in the offline love reverberating in the room. 

Fortunately, this congregation were receptive to her demands, and when it came to songs like ‘Free’, they even moved their arms up and down at her messianic command. The audience was later rewarded for their compliance with her performance of ‘Choreomania’ where Welch descended into the crowds, brushing fans’ hands as she sprinted through. Another highlight was hearing the dreamlike ‘Cosmic Love’, where the phone ban was lifted, and crowds illuminated the arena, transforming Rod Laver into a night sky full of fireflies.

After spending the past 15 years tackling everything from addiction (‘Morning Elvis’) and self-destruction (‘Ship to Wreck’) to unrequited love (‘Cosmic Love’) and eating disorders (‘Hunger’), Dance Fever is Welch’s critically-acclaimed fifth studio album that orbits around confessional themes of femininity and vulnerability. 

The latest album was made during the pandemic, inspired by Welch’s fixation with choreomania, a social phenomenon in Europe during the Middle Ages that left swathes of people in inexplicable fits of dancing. Lively sets like these must feel like a full-circle moment for Welch, who now gets to see her fans being socially undistant and dancing to songs like ‘Kiss With A Fist’ and ‘You’ve Got The Love.' "You all look amazing," the singer cooed, looking down at her glitter-speckled fans.

The encore saw Florence and the Machine finish with fan-favourites ‘Never Let Me Go’, ‘Shake It Out’ and ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)’. The performance of ‘Never Let Me Go’ was particularly hard-hitting. Welch had refrained from performing the song for a decade as it triggered memories of a traumatic time she wished to avoid. “It just hurt too much to sing it,” she confessed. Thunderous claps rippled through the crowd to herald in her performance of the song, which has now become a permanent fixture – and thank the heavens for that.

Their first live tour since the pandemic, Florence and the Machine was never going to do anything half-heartedly. Audiences were whisked on a euphoric odyssey for the entire duration of the 23-song set. Welch’s spine-chilling vocals, magnetic stage presence and conductor-like command of the crowd left audiences blown away and up into the cosmos. And what better way to have celebrated International Women’s Day than with the goddess herself?