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.
Dance Fever lands in mid-May and the West End show was only Florence’s third gig back since the pandemic. As a result, this comeback show felt doubly focused on the idea of returning and letting loose. The set’s first minutes went by in a whirlwind, with the likes of Shake It Out, Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) and What Kind Of Man sounding simply gargantuan to the few thousand at the cosy show. “You’ve been sitting down for too long,” she told the crowd in just the fourth song during the punk explosion of oldie Kiss With A Fist, and from then on they remained on their feet throughout, reflecting the untamed ball of energy on stage that was Welch.
Before airing another new track, Girls Against God, Welch discussed how she had a “spiritual breakdown” in lockdown with the lack of gigs and connection, and wrote a song of “old testament-style fury” for people stuck in their bedrooms. At the unreleased track’s apex, Welch sang, “If they ever let me out, I’m gonna really let it out,” before living up to the lyric’s promise and then some.
For the closing of Dog Days Are Over, she then rolled out a longstanding tradition at Florence + The Machine gigs, where fans are asked to put their phones away and then dance up and down manically when the track kicks back in. Those on the three upper levels were told to exercise caution by Welch though, as she revealed it scares her when the balconies in old theatres like this one quake forcefully.
At the end of a set this raucous and joyous — one at which Welch had encouraged the crowd to completely let go and dance with abandon — she can’t have been surprised that every single person gleefully disobeyed her final order and shook the grand old venue to its foundations. What a comeback.
