The 1975 "At Their Very Best" Live at The O2 Night 2

One of the most talked about tours of the year came to London which showed The 1975 at the pinnacle of their powers.

Before I start this post, I would like to make my thoughts well-known about the recent controversy surrounding The 1975 tour. In their show in Liverpool on the 26th of January, Lead singer Matt Healey seemed to have made a Hitler salute while singing the track' Love It If We Made It'. Many fans have debated if this was done in a hateful sense, Some would say that this is Matty's social commentary on the song or just Matt's "Trolling". Either way, I don't think this gesture is acceptable in any context, especially a day before Holocaust Memorial Day. Do I think Healey is a Nazi? No. I believe this was a poor choice from the frontman and I feel he needs to clear this situation up and apologies for his actions. That gesture would be very harmful to many in the Jewish community after all the atrocities they had suffered under Nazi rule. The band must think carefully about their actions on stage, which can lead to conscience for the years to come. Look at the Pantera/Rock Am Ring situation. As a non-Jewish 1975 fan, I'm disappointed. Many people Jewish or not have their own views on the matter but while I will be giving the band praise in this review, I think it is only right to point them out when they are in the wrong too. This also goes for Matty's recent podcast appearance as well. His comments were disgusting and are no reflection of my own.

After touring America at the end of 2022, All I've heard about is The 1975 "At Their Very Best" Tour which almost everyone has been talking about. From the set up of the stage to the antics onstage, this show had it all. I have been following them since their first album dropped and I was more than excited to see the band on this tour and find out what the fuss was all about. After their impressive set at Reading last year, could they really live up to the title of the tour and perform "At Their Very Best"?

One word to describe this show is a word Matty has been using all tour long. Meta. The show starts off with the band walking through the door of this house which has been constructed on the O2 stage and it is like they had come home from a day at work. Matty could be found on the sofa with a cigarette in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. It was like the band was acting out a story throughout the gig which is something I've personally never seen before at a live show. There were other parts of this when this was evident. Such as matty getting on top of the roof for 'I Love America and America Likes Me' to a group of people resetting the stage like something out of The Truman Show and Matty turning off the light at the end of the show all made it feel more than just a concert. To me, this was more like an experience.

The way in which the show was split was also very clever by the band. The first half of the show was mostly the band's latest album 'Being Funny In A Foreign Language' as well as some deep cuts from their back catalogue such as 'Fallingforyou' and 'Sincerity Is Scary'. The second half was a greatest hits set. All bangers and no fillers. You could say it was the band "At Their Very Best". Between both halves, the setlist choices were fantastic. From the new album, songs such as 'Looking For Someone (To Love)' and 'Happiness' got people dancing on the ground and starting the show in good spirits while the greatest hits set got everyone singing along. The highlights for me would be 'About You' where the band brought out singer Carley Holt to perform the popular track and their performance of the debut album classic 'Heart Out' which my inner fanboy came out and my friend and I went mental as this isn't a song which the band perform a lot so to get to see it for the first time was very special. While we missed out on seeing Taylor Swift on day one at the O2, I would take seeing 'Heart Out' any day of the week.

One person that completely owned the stage would be Matt Healey. He may be a divisive figure currently, but you can't deny that he can keep a crowd captivated for an evening. From getting Everyone in the O2 to shuffle side to side to ' It's Not Living (I It's Not With You') to getting the crowd to choose his "tyrant" choice when it came to choosing the next song in the setlist, The man has a mesmerising way of controlling the crowd and apart from is bizarre and sometimes questionable behaviour, he is a great example of what lead singer should be like for an arena show.

This tour clearly marketed Itself as being the band playing at the height of its powers. while I would argue some big hitters were missing from the setlist, the tour certainly lives up to the hype. With an outstanding stage set-up, visuals and a great performance from the band, it has to be argued that this really is "The 1975: At Their Very Best".