It was no doubt ladies night at Hisense Arena in Melbourne. You can’t blame the girls — over the last few years, The 1975 have built up a mighty legion of fans. The venue (an arena) was a massive upgrade from their previous visit to Australia, which saw them play Festival Hall. Everybody would be able to agree that this was going to be one of their biggest Australian shows to-date.
They opened the night with the ever so fun ‘Love Me’, where they welcomed to a bevvy of much earned high-pitched screams. The monster hit was one of the most high energy openings in recent memories. I couldn’t imagine how they were going to continue to maintain this level for the entire night, yet they did. I should have never doubted them.
‘Heart Out’, from their first album, was another early sign that we were in the store for a killer night. During this number, a saxophonist joined them, taking the already amazingness of the performance to another world. It was at this point I kept the girls towards the front in my thoughts…hopefully during the night they got as much oxygen and water they could get, because from where I was standing, it looked crazy.
‘She’s American’, was another ‘saxy’ song (get what I did there ;) ). The downtempo nature of ‘Anobrain’ allowed fans to catch a breath and get in the moment and zone out to Healy’s soft vocals and the ethereal instrumentals. This energy continued onto ‘Menswear’, though they picked up the tempo slightly…I certainly wasn’t complaining. The beautiful ‘Me' was one of my favourites from the set as the track sees them embracing depth and incredible lyricism. The emotionally stirring track is one of them songs that covers your body in goosebumps. Simply beautiful. I wasn’t sure whether they were going to play this track live, but I am glad they did, it’s one of my favourite creations they’ve ever made.
The initial part of the set flew by extremely quickly. The last track they played before leaving the stage was the much loved ‘Girls’, which is arguably one of their most loved tracks from their self-titled album.
As expected, they returned to the stage to play an encore. Featured another two massive hits from their first album, ‘Chocolate’ and ‘Sex’ were in the encore mix. ‘Sex’ was the final song to be played, and as you can imagine, everybody lost their minds.
The 1975 have come a long way from their early days where they were rocking out to the very tiny one room of Northcote Social Club to now be rocking an arena like Hisense. They keep on going from strength to strength, and it will be only a matter of years before they’re an absolute powerhouse.
PHOTO GALLERY:
The 1975 | Hisense Arena | melb | 24.7.16
(Photography by Kristy Smolcic)
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