Florence + the Machine at Theatre Royal Drury Lane
(Picture: Redferns)Towards the start of her first London show in three years last night, Florence Welch asked those in attendance at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane whether it was anyone’s first gig back since the pandemic. To the smattering of hands that responded yes, she promised: “We’re gonna take good care of you.”
At this point, Welch had just performed Free, a new and unreleased song from Florence + The Machine’s imminent fifth album, Dance Fever. A song “about my anxiety,” the track saw Welch wrenching positivity out of death and destruction. During the brisk acoustic track, she marvelled at how she, and many others, managed “to exist in the face of suffering and death and somehow still keep on singing,” before the track’s final message — “When I’m dancing, I am free” — became an anthem in an instant.
