Florence + the Machine @ SSE Hydro, Glasgow, 17 Nov

Masters of mass connection, Florence + the Machine fill the SSE Hydro tonight with tracks old and new

Live Review by Max Sefton | 21 Nov 2018

Every tier of the Hydro is packed and the audience’s screams are deafening as Florence Welch bursts into June, the first track from her latest album High as Hope. It’s an impressive opener from an act who looks perfectly at home on the biggest of stages.

An hour earlier however and the arena is still filling up as Brooklynite trio Wet, little-known to this side of the Atlantic, take the stage. Blurring modern R'n'B and indie rock, they’re very 2018, despite sounding, if we’re being uncharitable, like a more anaemic version of The xx.

Vocalist Kelly Zutrau has a nice voice but her songs lean towards pastel shades rather than the bright and bold colours you need to fill a vast arena. And in the words of one audience member: "Wearing no shoes is a cliché now." It’s all a bit mild-mannered and well, wet.

By contrast, a decade on from their debut single, Florence + the Machine are masters of the mass connection. Half theatrical rock‘n’roll queen, half hippy life coach, Florence Welch leaps and twirls across the stage in a floating dress, like a character from some classic novel sprung to life. So furious is her dancing that it’s amazing she can still summon enough breath to unleash her stadium-sized voice. “The energy feels very free, very feminine,” she tells the crowd before launching into the soulful South London Forever. 

Elsewhere, the ghost that haunts Only If For a Night is revealed to be her Glaswegian grandma Sybil, who the singer insists is in the room tonight, while Patricia – which features a verse taking aim at “toxic masculinity” – is dedicated to punk high priestess Patti Smith.

There’s lots of bouncing to old favourites like Dog Days are Over and Cosmic Love, with Welch instructing fans during the latter to hold their phone lights high in the air, but the standouts are a handful of tracks from underrated third record How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, including a runaway Delilah and a storming What Kind of Man.

Picking up a rainbow flag from the audience for an encore of Shake It Out, her eight-piece band whip up a storm – but all eyes are on Florence Welch. You suspect she’d have it no other way.

https://florenceandthemachine.net/