REVIEW: FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE AT CARDIFF MOTORPOINT ARENA (10/03/12)
Tonight’s gig is a night of conflicting emotions and a collection of what you might call NME darlings. Florence and the Machine are riding the wave of a terrific “difficult” second album but riding it well with a string of UK arena dates.
Opening tonight’s proceedings is Spector, a well formed indie pop band from London, perhaps a difficult sell in the Welsh capital, but the band is probably more used to small clubs than the Arena setting – but take it in their stride and anthem “Never Fade Away” sounds like it was made for this.
The night takes a dramatic turn in the shape of main support The Horrors, whose thought provoking indie pop seems melancholy and depressing after their more tongue-in-cheek predecessors. The crowd seems largely un-reactive and even their biggest hits fail to illicit a response from the ever-growing audience.
It seems it will be up to tonight’s main attraction to make the crowd as one; entering backlit from behind the cathedralesque screens to address her people at the alter/mic stand, Florence arrives. Delivering a triple header from new album ‘Ceremonials’, she grabs her disciples attention and soon wastes no time before sending them into an absolute possessed mob with a double header of “Shake It Out” and “Dog Days”, all the while spinning and twirling in her golden trimmed black cat suit and robe.
The audience hangs on her every word in this commanding performance. It’s not long before she eventually slows the pace, probably as much for her own benefit as ours, as the whole room struggles to catch their breath beneath Florence the whirlwind. Just when it seems like our attention span shows the slightest shot of being threatened – Florence unleashes the beast that is “You Got The Love”, which, although a cover song, this has become her own.
The encore sees our High Priestess Florence conduct her adoring choir with “Never Let me Go” before ending with stand out song “No Light”, which sees Florence bang the drums along with the drummer and bassist, in what is to be a thunderous conclusion to the evening.
Photo: Laura Palmer
Words: Adam Hooper
