Words and Photo By Leah Neale
Friday 13th. Unlucky for some… but not for me, whose hand went numb when grabbed by the goddess leading The Machine. Florence Welch and her magical, mystical energy connects with her audience in a way that I have never seen any other artist be able to do; even when her fans range from 40-year old men raving to ‘Spectrum (Say My Name)’ to young women and teenage girls in flower crowns sobbing to ‘Sympathy Magic’.
I, myself fell victim to the dramatic sobs during ‘Sympathy Magic’ before I was rescued by Florence’s omnipresence. Wiping my eyes and looking up to see my lifelong idol right in front of me, grabbing my hand that was soaking in tears. I consider myself a changed woman, I was blessed. I can never rest.
Is Florence against machines? Welch often advises her audience to live in the moment and not to watch her through a screen. ‘Everybody Scream’ – the album title track and the name of the tour – even has a lyric where she projects “put down your screen” which I believe is part of the reason she is so deeply connected to her audience as these are not any ‘performative fans’. They are there to see Florence & The Machine, not to brag about it through their socials. I have no regrets not filming most of the show especially being front row, however I am determined to find a video of the exact moment she walked over to me. Until then, everyone has to believe me, and I must keep telling myself that it in fact was not a dream.
In the last two years, I have been to over 20 massive shows but never have I gone through a range of emotions like I did at Florence & The Machine. The only thing that even came close was Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour: A three and a half hour show with about thirteen costume changes. Florence Welch can make anyone feel anything with only an hour and a half to do so and not a single costume change. Just a flowing black dress. (I am still convinced that she is a real witch). Her natural beauty, her signature auburn, wavy hair and her bohemian Stevie Nicks’ style dresses convey an ethereal essence that is almost beyond human.
‘Witch Choir’ – a hypnotising vocal and dance ensemble group that worked with Florence on her recent album – joined the band on tour, a perfect addition to the witchy madness that is the Everybody Scream Tour. Florence herself has a possessing, unique way of dancing and usually this is just her running around barefoot and spinning in her long dresses, and even though her work with the witch choir on this tour was remarkably different from her last tours, it really felt very Florence & The Machine, in the best way possible.
The setlist of the show also felt very personal to Welch’s current stage in life as in an interview with The Guardian, she recently spoke out on her traumatic experience with life-saving surgery following a lost pregnancy during her last tour, voicing “the closest I came to making life was the closest I came to death”. Florence Welch suffered through a ruptured ectopic pregnancy not long after writing lyrics about whether it was possible for motherhood to coexist with her being a global star, constantly touring. The deep cut lyrics of her 2022 song ‘King’ state: “we argue in the kitchen about whether to have children / About the world ending and the scale of my ambition” and follows this with what is now one of her most unintentionally devastating lines in a song: “I never knew my killer would be coming from within. I am no mother, I am no bride. I am King”. She has alluded to how she wishes these lyrics had not manifested into her reality as accurately as they did. In a recent interview with BBC Sounds, she explains why she ends the album on the repeated lyrics ‘peace is coming’, stating that “if things are f***ing coming true then this one is coming true”, referring to the album closer ‘And Love’.
I do not know how she manages to sing ‘King’ in the middle of her set every night on tour without falling apart but she really brings a whole catharsis to the show by ending on ‘And Love’, reassuring her fans that peace really is on its way. There is also something very poetic about starting the set with the title track and first song of Everybody Scream and closing the show with the last song on the album, no matter how many people think she should have added ‘You’ve Got The Love’ to the end.
It’s a perfect setlist. A perfect show.
