Ten years since the release of their debut, The 1975 have returned to arenas across the country with a tour titled ‘At Their Very Best’. Five albums in, there’s plenty of tracks for The 1975 to choose from for ‘their very best’ setlist. They managed to narrow it down to 25, including most of their latest album Being Funny In A Foreign Language, in an innovative concert split into two halves.
As always, the concert began with the latest album’s version of the opening track ‘The 1975’ (my favourite version yet), before bursting into Looking For Somebody To Love and continuing with the majority of their recent releases in the order they appear on the album.
This tour, the band said farewell to their iconic neon box that has been their icon since the beginning – instead, the set resembled a house, complete with lampshades, sofas, a television – and an electrical generator next to the streetlamp ready to kick things off. It was the most ambitious set I had ever seen in Manchester Arena, without a shadow of a doubt. It set the stage for a somewhat homely feel to the concert – as if we were stepping into the band’s private life, creating a veil of intimacy in an arena of thousands.
Despite that atmosphere created by the homely decor, the Being Funny In A Foreign Language half of the concert seemed to lack authenticity. The lab coats moving the set around and Matty’s mumblings felt slightly over-rehearsed and insincere, lacking the unpredictable excitement of a live concert, especially one by The 1975.
The first half of the show also included a couple of older songs – Sincerity Is Scary, one of my favourites, and a theatrical version of I Like America & America Likes Me with Matty stood on the roof of the house, elevated high up above the crowd. Although the new album is one of my favourites, the returning songs were a comfort break. However, one of the concert’s highlights was a new song, the penultimate of the concert’s first half: About You. Their most popular album track on Spotify was an incredibly moving live performance that I hope remains on future setlists.
The two halves are divided by an interlude called ‘consumption’, in which Matty’s bandmates and backing band leave him on stage alone to do a little performance that has inevitably gone viral, including eating meat and doing some press-ups in front of multiple TV screens showing flickering news excerpts. He’s probably trying to make a socio-political point but by this point we’re all just ready to hear the hits.
The band made headlines when Taylor Swift made a surprise guest appearance during the first of their two London shows, so of course fans were expecting another special guest for a venue as important to the band as Manchester Arena. They delivered: singer Charli XCX, who dates the band’s drummer George, performed her song ‘Vroom Vroom’ and while the crowd went wild, I would have preferred Matty’s unique interlude to carry on for another three minutes… and that’s saying something.
But maybe my lack of enthusiasm for Charli XCX made the band’s re-entrance to the stage to perform the second half of the show even sweeter. The ‘At Their Very Best’ section began with their highest charting single If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know) and carried on with fan favourites including Robbers, It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You) and Somebody Else. The second half was more relaxed and more fun – Matty finally meaningfully engaged with the audience rather than the artistic ponderings of the first act that moulded the audience into mere spectators of his art, rather than a crowd at a concert. Finally, he asked the crowd ‘hiya, you alright?’ and bantered with the crowd when someone at the front threw a Gregg’s sausage roll on stage. Finally, the theatrics were softened and the concert became exactly what the bill promised: The 1975 at their very best.
Their setlist changes slightly at every venue and Manchester was treated to early album track Menswear. Accompanied by colourful pink and green lights, the song provided a contrast to the otherwise monochromatic lighting used throughout the show and I couldn’t imagine the set without it.
Although the concert did not have a typical encore, the end was in sight once they began an energetic ‘The Sound’; the section of this song where the whole crowd jumps up and down is one of my all-time favourite live concert moments, the entire arena feels electric. Although the concert can’t get any better at that point, following it up with two more of their most powerful songs, Sex and Give Yourself A Try, was the perfect way to guarantee every member of the crowd walked away from that arena with memories of an incredible concert.
Setlist
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
Smile (Charlie Chaplin cover)
All I Need to Hear
Sincerity Is Scary
fallingforyou
I Like America & America Likes Me
About You
When We Are Together
Charli XCX Set
Vroom Vroom
At Their Very Best
If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)
TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME
Chocolate
It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)
Menswear
Robbers
Somebody Else
I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)
Love It If We Made It
The Sound
Sex
Give Yourself a Try
It was brilliant to see The 1975 again – if the entire set had felt as genuine as the second half, it would have been an unbeatable night, but I couldn’t slightly help but miss what their last performance in Manchester, back in 2020 with Matty limping onto the stage on crutches was imbued with from start to finish: realness.
