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My first experience with The 1975 was last year at Lollapalooza where they were getting a whole bunch of momentum after being on tour in the US for a few months by starting their run at Coachella in April 2014. Their catchy lyrics and tunes quickly became my soundtrack in the car, and I was ready for more. Looks like so to was the rest of the world, since the band has since become very successful within a year’s time, selling out venues all over the place.
Playing at SODO would be no exception to this but I really had no idea how different the audience was going to be from Lolla. The crowd was not there just for them after all and it’s always hard to gauge how into a band people are at festivals. The band’s debut album was co-produced by Mike Crossey, who has worked with the likes of Foals, Keane, Jake Bugg, The Kooks, and Arctic Monkeys.
The band met in high school and shortly started to play music together mostly covering songs before they had their written any of their own. This all began in 2002 while quite young, you can tell that the guys are having a blast together on stage after forming their musical style together. Thirteen years is a long time for a band to be together when they are all still in their mid-twenties and becoming pop icons.
When I walked into the venue, I noticed just how young their audience was by the bar barricade being pushed far back in comparison to other shows. They took the stage and I don’t think the fans stopped singing along or dancing to the music. I was a little surprised to see this but it makes me so happy to see an interactive audience at a live show. Sometimes Seattle fans are not the liveliest as we all know and have been told. This was an exception to see and I don’t know if it was the specific band that inspired the mood or the fans being a little younger than normal.
Either way, Matthew Healy did not lose a single person during their performance, either bantering, dancing around, playing his guitar, singing, or flipping his curls in the air. It made me wonder if the Brits are simply better at everything in music and why that was. This was the last night of their North American tour, which was a great success.
Healy mentioned it a couple of times but mostly before he started “Me,” facing the audience telling them to put their phones away for the next song. “Let’s connect without phones, screw everyone, let’s have a moment,” and for the next few minutes the only thing that lit up was the stage with his soft vocals, along with the soothing sax sound towards the end.
Their production seemed simple but well set-up, with big light panels in the back along with boxes on stage. Every song would be a different light that made them look like shadows most of the time in the background. Everyone waived their hands in the air for “Fallingforyou,” and then they played “Somebody Else” and “Robbers” with his voice echoing through the space.
Their last song before the encore was “Girls,” and I swear it was more of a huge sing along than just the band playing one of their many radio smashes. Sometimes his voice would literally get lost in the crowd’s, finding it difficult to tell whose voice was supposed to be front and center. It was a great feeling to be part of that, everyone was into it and the energy was awesome.
