On Sunday (17 January), The 1975 made a glorious return to Brisbane in full colour at The Tivoli Theatre.
Playing a mix of old and new, it was a great concert for the true fans. Supported by The Japanese House, it was a strong night for a divergence of pop.
Watching The 1975 again was as if I was like Alice in Wonderland and I had fallen asleep in a house until I woke to find a witch outside my flying house. The next thing I knew I had stepped somewhere over the rainbow.
Image © Callum DorwardThe 1975 have been known to play more on the darker side of the human psyche, letting us hear their take on love, death, sadness, drugs and more. Shedding off the dark like a new skin, they have ditched their old black and white aesthetics for a new, neon pop that is unbelievably sweet to look at.
With their trademark rectangles framing the stage, they were set a quarter-way down this time, with zero smoke. Everything was crisp, clean and new.
Still playing favourites from their old album, they grasped the crowd as if they were stepping into their own future. Matty (vocals, guitar) was the only one to speak from the band, asking the crowd to “get a little emo” when playing one of their old songs. This resonated with their shift from a dark past to a bright, sweet but still realistic present.
Image © Callum DorwardAs their new album hasn’t been released yet, Matty also let us know that tickets to the venue were purposefully made hard to get, so that a curated version of “true fans” filled the intimate Tivoli. This made me feel special: everything seemed very sincere, and not just the words.
For us true fans (I do count myself among them), we were treated to songs from the unreleased and upcoming album titled ‘I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It’. The selection of songs was amazing, ranging from dancey and classic to heartfelt and romantic, which translated well and matched their first album when played onstage together.
Image © Callum DorwardThey played singles already released from their new album, choosing to exclude ‘UGH!’ (Sadly a personal favorite) and using that as a way to tell us: “They will play it next time”. Although I have learned to take most things I hear with a grain of salt, this is an exciting statement considering how close the concert was to the album release, 26 February this year.
All in all it was great to have a band in Brisbane that reaches so many fans, old or new, in their own way and lets the crowd embrace a more artistic and lyrical approach to expressing oneself, and embracing change.
Image © Callum DorwardTrue to form they finished with no encore, something they are known for.
