Florence + The Machine

Genting Arena, Birmingham on Sat 19th Sep 2015

Tonight would be our first gig for a few months, my wife wasn't exactly enthralled at the prospect of going to see Florence + The Machine at the Genting Arena, especially after we had only, the day before, returned from Jamaica and both had jetlags from hell to contend with.

This would be our sixth time seeing 'Flo' in the live arena and hopefully it wouldn't be the last.

We missed support act 'The Staves' due to us both falling asleep on the sofa, and us running a bit late.

It's hard to believe that Florence has been around for a few years with three classic albums to fall back on and a back catalogue any artist would be proud of.

The arena tonight was packed to the rafters, the main part of the arena was standing, from where we were sitting it didn't look like there was room to breathe, let alone squeeze a few more bodies in. Thank goodness we were sitting up the sides, we had a quality view and were right in the sight line to see everything.

A no frills set, no gimmicks or gadgets, fireworks or strobing lighting, just two big screens and an occasional visual, it was Florence and her Machine, which consisted of an 11 piece band, including her trademark harp and a brass section to boot.

Coming on stage smack on 21.00 hours, two hours of blistering songs, firecrackers they were, it was a rollercoaster of emotions and Florence was like Zebedee on acid, flinging her- self from side to side of the stage, trying to cover every inch, pirouetting and taking giant steps from side to side. She opened the show by coming in the arena from the side of stage and actually greeting the first row, holding her hand out to touch them all before heading up on stage to belt out 'What the Water Gave Me', then followed up by the epic 'Ship To Wreck'.

Dressed in a White flowy all in one, and cavorting around stage, what can only be described as today's answer to 'Kate Bush', the set flowed so well and this has been to date the best I've seen Florence live, her songs captivated the audience and echoed around the arena, it was eerie at some stages, especially when she sang 'Cosmic Love' with just the harp and the guitar as accompaniment. It was epic.

The two hour set was over in a jiffy, it went way too quick for me, I wanted to savour every moment, other highlights for me were classic 'You've Got the Love', everyone was bouncing about like they were on pogo sticks, it was amazing. A 16 song set and my favourite song of the night was 'Dog Days Are Over', the harp on this track was mesmerising, we saw so many half naked girls after Florence asked the audience to take their clothes off, hug each other and kiss each other, she's such a free spirit. I think we counted six half naked girls, poor Florence was bombarded with clothes on stage, bras, T-shirts, trousers, jumpers, everything lol. The funniest point was when she pranced around on stage flinging the bra around and around, it was hilarious.

The gig tonight was well worth the ticket rice of £35 for standing. Florence showed she can belt it out like the rest of them, she has come a long way since I saw her at Hop Farm all those years ago.

This gig made me happy and contented with life, we floated out to our car. Tonight was epic and well worth making the effort, Florence really did light up our lives tonight.

article by: Michelle & Trish Owen-Williams

photos by: Michelle Owen-Williams

published: 21/09/2015 15:03



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