The 1975, Arena Birmingham - review with pictures
The summertime vibes seeping out of every available gap into the night sky were warm enough to melt each shard of ice threatening to put us on our backsides as we entered and exited.
What was going on in the heat of Arena Birmingham betrayed the shrill grasp of Jack Frost awaiting outside. It was a strange juxtaposition. Much like the dramatic light show that spoke of long, sun-kissed sunsets rather than these bleak post-Christmas evenings.
The 1975 were in town, their bubble-wrapped, candy floss pop tunes in tow to get the arena bouncing and mobile phones shining.
It was quite clear from the off that you weren’t really fitting in if you didn’t feel like a sing and a dance.
And the happy mood flowed throughout the set – epitomised by one young couple getting engaged during Robbers before frontman Matty Healy invited them up to enjoy the rest of the gig sat pretty much on the stage.
The fun and frolicking is orchestrated by Healy, bending around the stage with his whip-like hip thrusts. And he was ably helped out by their enthralling stage show.
The sharp lighting and minimalistic LED picture frames were suddenly 3D when the middle section of the back wall retracted to allow Healy to dance inside it while camera trickery made it look like we were staring down a rabbit hole into another dimension.
This was in full effect for the bass-heavy Somebody Else, the vibrancy of the track adding to the electro wizardry coming out of the backdrop.
They’re not perfect. Their meandering middle section had minds wandering and chit chat jabbering - suddenly the phones in hands weren’t filming but instead texting and checking Facebook timelines.
It also led to one blazing row between three friends to our right which provided enough entertainment to take away from the sudden dreariness of the performance.
But their high-octane finale had the whole room bouncing again after slowly thawing and coming back to life following the soft centre.
Love It If We Made It, Chocolate, The Sound and then Sex ensured they finished on a high and the band as well as their production values left a lasting impression on their adoring, mainly young crowd.
Kudos, too, for putting extracts of bad reviews they’ve received over the years on-screen during The Sound.
It showed a self-deprecation many artists could learn from, and puts extra pressure on the reviewers in the house to choose their words carefully.
