ShareFlorence + The Machine performing their Dance Fever Tour at The Motorpoint Arena Nottingham on Tuesday 31st January 2023.
Review by Kevin Cooper
Florence + The Machine continued their tour to celebrate the release of their fifth album, Dance Fever, at the Motorpoint Arena on Tuesday night.
Having had to postpone the November tour after a stage accident on the opening night left Florence Welch with a broken foot, they were back to deliver an electric performance which had the crowd loving every minute of it.
Welch, with her bare feet, flowing gown, and her band of multi-instrumentalist musicians, walked onto a stage that was sparsely decorated with candelabra sculptures covered with what seemed like spiders webs, she raised her arms and struck a dramatic pose as the band played feverishly as she launched into new song, Heaven Is Here.
With the album being released in May of last year, the songs were already known to this excited crowd. As expected, the set list was dominated by eleven out of fourteen of the album tracks, which were all very well received.
Welch regularly punched the air, pointed at the audience and ran around the stage while singing new song King in perfect pitch. During Ship To Wreck she urged the crowd to stand and dance, before she launched into a brace of other new songs, Free and Daffodil.
Dog Days Are Over from their debut album, Lungs, was received with a mass of cheers as Welch sprinted across the stage, and her between song stories about what the songs mean to her had the crowd on side. But she is at her happiest when she is whirling around from one side of the stage to the other, and with her mighty voice never registering the effort, she is indeed a born performer.
With a set that closed with two more album tracks, My Love and Restraint, the anticipated encore opener Never Let Me Go was received with thunderous cheers. On stage Welch is simply mesmerizing and when she asks the crowd to put away their phones and ‘live for the moment’, such is the crowds respect for her that the majority of them obliged.