Like at home. The British group The 1975 brought their living room to Prague, so they played their songs full of joyful optimism, melancholy, but also nihilism, self-discovery or climate change in an environment that couldn’t be more homely. In addition, it is said to be carbon neutral. What was it?
Live: The 1975
support: Been Stellar
place: Sports hall Fortuna, Prague
date: March 14, 2024
setlist: Act 1: Being Funny In A Foreign Language: The 1975 (BFIAFL), Looking For Somebody (To Love), Happiness, Part Of The Band, Oh Caroline, I’m In Love With You, A Change Of Heart, An Encounter, Robbers, Somebody Else, I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes), Fallingforyou, About You, 28 (Drive Like I Do song), Act 2: Matty’s Nightmare: Woman (zkráceno), Be My Mistake (akusticky), Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America (zpívá pouze Polly Money), Act 3: Still… At Their Very Best: If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know), TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME, It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You), The Sound, Love It If We Made It, Sex, Give Yourself A Try
Unfortunately, we do not have any photos from the performance, the band’s management did not allow the media to take official photos.
The forerunners of The 1975 were a numerous and, for now, not very well-known band from New York City, which calls itself Been Stellar. And she was really fantastic. She didn’t play perfumed synth-pop, as you might expect given the headliners, but instead headed somewhere between dreampop, shoegaze and alternative rock, so it was clear that you’d find more Silversun Pickups, The War On Drugs and of course Radiohead in their players. In short, the chosen company itself. Unfortunately, due to various closures of the Prague public transport, the writer only managed one final song, but it was enough. The talent and ambition were evident and immediately intoxicating. This bunch will be worth getting to know more about sometime in the future. The Fortuna sports hall, where the concert was upgraded from the Karlín Forum, where the formation around Matt Healy had already played during their last stop in Prague, turned out to be too big. Although it was not half-empty, the hall could still handle dozens, maybe even hundreds of spectators. But this time, the often criticized older arena quite unexpectedly offered an admirably clear sound. The key question was what program the Manchester natives would bring and how different it would be from their otherwise amazing and bystanders sorely underappreciated gig at last year’s Rock For People. After all – since then, the group has only managed to release a live performance from Madison Square Garden, which gave the current line its name, and one new single.“;$(this).parent().parent().html(tmpo);return false;”>
And it’s a pleasure to say that the band rocked their show pretty hard. The most loyal fans may have noticed that the stage lacks a two-story spiral staircase compared to larger concerts, and that the frontman in the second act called “Matty’s Nightmare” does not move to the small stage in the middle of the hall, as he did in other countries. Even so, the scenography was breathtaking. Maybe you’ve gone to a concert a few times and noticed that your favorite band has a carpet under them. The 1975, however, raised this homey atmosphere to a completely different level – they are currently taking the entire living room around the world. The two-story stage is dominated by three pairs of shutters, two functional doors, several armchairs, a chair and a couch, wooden tables, a library full of books, and each of the musicians also has his own night lamp. And you will also find eight old televisions on the stage. But the old ones are only visible to the eye, because the antique packaging hides modern, interconnected displays that complete the story that takes place during the entire performance. But the band went so far in the details that you can also notice a framed photo on the desk of the keyboardist, an old-school telephone, pictures on the wall, a decorative statue or even a set of board games. The amount of work and thinking about such little things is hard to believe in the music scene and it is breathtaking in itself, because no one else in the industry does such things. And by the way – it was probably not the intention – but the aesthetics with which the portable living room was built was quite reminiscent of apartments from the seventies of the last century. The formation, named after an excerpt from the work of Jack Kerouac, thus perhaps unintentionally finally lived up to its name visually.“;$(this).parent().parent().html(tmpo);return false;”>
When the concert started at 9:35 p.m., with an already above-standard footage nowadays, it was obvious that Matty Healy would continue his theatrical performance with apparent drunkenness, which you can read more about in the report from Hradec Králové. He was escorted to the stage by only two members of the band and the frontman first went through both doors, turned on the lamp by the keys, lit a cigarette, took a breath from the cigarette and while still holding the nicotine drug in one hand, placed the other hand on the instrument and began to play the theme song with three fingers . Gradually, other members of the nine-piece ensemble appeared in the living room, and with each of them the song began to gradually progress, while the opening credits representing the complete cast appeared on the side screens, like from old TV series. It’s hard to imagine a cooler introduction. Even this time, it was obvious that for more than four years since heroin, the clean frontman is only acting on his drunkenness and verbosity. Although he alternated between various drinking vessels in his hands and continued to look like he was having trouble getting from one side of the stage to the other, it was again the small details that you had to notice to make it clear that his performance had a script and the singer clings to him.“;$(this).parent().parent().html(tmpo);return false;”>
You could see it, for example, when he walked through the central door just as the song started playing. Or when the guitarist and bassist in the song “Happiness” all sat together on chairs and an armchair. And also when the mentioned TV screens in the beginning of the song “Part Of The Band” announced various world disasters in the form of evening news, among which there was also a mention of the war in Ukraine, after which Matty pretended that we are here to have fun. And as soon as he casually touched one of the screens with his hand, the program on it, unlike the others, switched from black and white broadcasting to color at that moment. You just don’t do something like that in real drunkenness. And yes, all these moments were part of the overall story that the group offered to the audience. And which well describes today’s world, in which we find it difficult to find happiness, overwhelmed by negative messages from social networks and the media. A member of Taylor Swift’s ex-partners club, he also interacted with the audience much more than is his habit. He let him sing more than once, and fortunately the sports hall did not leave his favorite alone even during less popular songs. And he also noticed a nine-year-old girl in the front row who had a sign saying that it was her first concert and if there was anything the frontman could do to make the show more memorable. “So I don’t know what to give you,” the singer looked around thoughtfully like John Travolta in the famous meme. “Do you want a cigarette, for example?” he offered her jokingly, and the hall erupted in laughter. “Or my shirt when we’re done?” he thought aloud. “Hold on, I’ll think of something,” he concluded, and it looked like there would be no further interaction until the end of the performance, and the moment would be lost. But during the final farewell, he jumped down to the girl and gave her his empty plate as a souvenir, and shortly afterwards, drummer George Daniel brought another pair of mallets to the crying fan. Musically, The 1975 were precise as usual. The rich instrumentation provided a full, dense sound in which all instruments were heard nicely and every saxophone solo was received with thunderous appreciation. But as is usual with the band, their synth-pop was light as a feather and the sadder their lyrics, the more uplifting their summer-filled music. It was like sitting in a swimming pool and tasting the juicy flavors of ice cream scoops in a huge bottomless cup with each song. The absolute essence of the joy of the music itself moved the hips of those present from the very beginning and slowed them down more significantly only in the aforementioned second, mainly acoustic act, when, in addition to a pair of songs performed by the thirty-four-year-old hedonist from London, the vocalist Polly Money also performed at the microphone in a song that could be marked like country music. Also at that time, the technicians in doctor’s coats, as we already know from the last tour, rushed to the stage and began to completely rearrange the entire stage, which culminated in rolling up the carpet and stacking all the TVs on top of each other. However, the group continued to play an instrumental, rock piece, as if it had not slowed down. Even such a moment is completely unheard of at concerts of any genre.“;$(this).parent().parent().html(tmpo);return false;”>
Perhaps the only reservation can be made about the single “TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME”, in which, like in the studio version, autotune is used, so this piece also sounds quite unnatural live. But if you look at the setlist, what the final performance looked like, it is clear that the euphoria from one big hit after another quickly banished such thoughts. And the audience was once again jumping with joy and addictive rhythm during “The Sound”. The 1975 surpassed themselves in Prague and played their best domestic concert so far. Again. If you weren’t there, you should be sorry, because the band has never been in better form, and it’s already safe to say that if you like a combination of synth-pop with occasional excursions into indie-rock, you won’t find a more interesting and concert-friendly band in the world right now a more captivating formation than it is. Such a phenomenal evening will be remembered for a long time.
