Live Review: The 1975 - Cardiff International Arena

THE 1975

CARDIFF INTERNATIONAL ARENA

CARDIFF
16/01/2023

There’s more than meets the eye in Matty’s metaverse.

Words by Philip Giouras
All Photography by Jordan Curtis Hughes

★★★★★

A streetlight flickers into life, its glow illuminating the outline of a house. It’s followed by a spotlight crossing the stage like a pair of headlights and a familiar two-beep locking noise of a car just before the front door of the house is opened. Like a play, the stage has been set and one by one the band emerge into this beautifully constructed spectacle. 

As each one enters the set, they are followed by a cameraman in a white coat, resulting in a close angle shot for the audience, names credited on screen in a manner reminiscent of the iconic opening subtitles to Twin Peaks (the theme tune of which could be heard twice over the PA pre-show). However, one member is missing, enigmatic frontman Matt Healy, who as it turns out, has been in front of us this whole time, passed out on the couch.

Act 1: Being Funny In A Foreign Langauge

The show's first half and its incredible set are designed for keen observers, and the enjoyment of little, easily missed details. A clock ticks on in the background, set to the current time, whilst a limited print poster of the show including the location and venue, is up on the wall surrounded by vases of flowers.  This is not simply a backdrop, the house is a character that is integral to the band's performance within a performance. As Healy explains when he breaks the fourth wall later in the show, we are witnessing a version of Healy that is very carefully presented to the audience. 

The narrative of tonight's first act is seemingly centred around Healy’s previous struggles with sobriety and the crowd’s expectations of the persona they expect to see.  He appears to be on stage a drunken mess, religiously puffing away on a cigarette or wildly swilling a bottle of red wine, the starkly labelled  ‘Prophecy’  angled towards the camera.  Whilst he’s yet to break it to the crowd, this is of course all an illusion. Each note he strikes on the piano for the self-titled opener ‘The 1975’ is pitch perfect, his movements synced in time with the percussion and light cues. He’s undoubtedly a showman, and the opening half of tonight is as much about the theatrics of a performance as it is about the music they’re performing.

Tonight's show is split into two halves. The first is focused on the band's critically acclaimed latest album ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’. Despite already having a beloved place in fans' hearts, it is undoubtedly a brave feat to place all your latest material front and centre. That is where the previously mentioned captivating backdrop of a sitcom-style house comes in. Healy, well aware of the risk he’s taken with the setlist, is making sure to offer something unique to the audience, a spectacle unlike any other.

Healy wears his influences firmly on his sleeve across this first act. The beguiling rockstar emanates Elvis Presley in the way he vigorously wiggles his hips across the stage during the delightfully dark ‘Somebody To Love’, his movements and its melody a sharp contrast to its darkly lyrical content. On ‘Happiness’ Healy slides through the living room before slumping onto the couch, surrounded by an electric guitar and saxophone serenade. 

‘Part of the Band’ has already shown itself to be one of the most intricate and compelling pieces of music the band have produced so far. On stage, it once again transforms into something quite magnificent. A technical marvel it mixes a thick wall of acoustic sound with a modern twist on the timeless song structure and lyricism of folk. For the live rendition, Healy’s even adopted a country twang in his pronunciation as he laments current culture. Throughout the track, TV screens that surround the house’s interior flicker into life, at one point, Healy strokes one and the image is repeated across the screen in an endless loop as if he’s trapped in the reality he’s creating. 

There are a few notable occasions where the adoration for the new material can be intensely felt. There’s a communal feel in the way the crowd receives tracks such as ‘Oh Caroline’ and ‘I’m In Love With You’ that surely matches the feverishness reserved usually for boybands and The Beatles. Phones fill the room to catch those unmissable 'TikTok moments' such as the beautiful bridge of ‘About You’, intriguingly not even sung by Healy but by touring musician Polly Money, nonetheless  he’s present to receive each word emphatically screamed in his direction. Interestingly, there’s a small piece of fan service featured during the track in the form of a glowing doorframe which resembles the group's iconic box symbol.

Throughout this first section, there’s a smattering of older material that feels reworked and adjusted to fit into the vibe of their latest record. ‘Be My Mistake’ for instance already felt like a spiritual predecessor to ‘All I Need To Hear’, something which becomes very apparent when placed next to each other. Meanwhile, early EP favourite ‘fallingforyou’ which Healy has previously described as the best song he’s ever written matches the eighties power ballad electronica aesthetic of Being Funny’s later section.

Eventually, Healy ascends to the roof of the house, where perched he launches into a stripped-back, delicate version of ‘I Like America & America Likes Me’ at odds with the intense layers of vocoder distortion on his voice. There are sharp parallels to the sort of stage-bending showmanship shown by Kanye West in his earlier works as a shroud of smoke and a single light amplify Healy’s silhouette.

Towards the end of the first act, Healy reflects in a monologue about his method acting, musing on the fact if you’ve written a show about yourself, in the way this first section has been staged, then is it method acting? Is it meta? To bolster his point someone walks onto the stage with a film clapboard and we are dramatically cut away from the scene.  The lights go up and the house suddenly feels like an actual set. Reality is slippery, he explains,  and despite the show feeling very loose, as we’ve alluded to with his on-stage persona, it is like he later admits, a very strict regimented routine. 

It makes you wonder how much of the emotion you feel from the stage, from any act, is ever the full picture. Going by the reactions from large swathes of the crowd, there was a belief among many that he was staggeringly drunk.  Of course, as evidenced by the camera which occasionally glances over his seemingly miraculous bottle of wine that never seems to get any emptier, that’s not the case. 

The two halves of the evening are separated by the much-discussed ‘Consumption’ interval. This involves Healy smoking whilst his hand brushes over his trousers (to the sound of deafening screams), inhaling oxygen from a canister, and eating from an oversized piece of raw meat before finally doing a series of push-ups to the imagery that features the likes of Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Princ Andrew, and the close view we are privy to via the ever-present cameraman shows him mouthing to himself that he “doesn’t want to do this anymore”. He concludes by escaping the scene through a broken TV.  The performance has ended and now the concert can begin.

Act 2: At Their Very Best

The second half of the evening, aptly titled ‘At Their Very Best’ is a much tighter affair, lacking the pageantry of the first in exchange for a sugar rush delivery of the group's biggest hits. If the first part was their pitch to be considered innovators and auteurs, the second is the band staking their worldwide headline credentials. It’s a testament to the evening and the entire concept that you feel so culturally full and enriched from the first half alone, that its second half is an incredible cherry on the top.

There is an immediate shift in energy from Healy. In the first segment, he is playing a role, almost indifferent to the audience, making a conscious effort to emphasize the performative world he’s created. With the second half, he removes the emotional and physical distance.  Immediately, he’s transformed, and ready to display just why he’s one of the most divisive yet engaging frontmen on the planet right now.

An opening salvo of ‘Too Shy’ and ‘TOOTIME’ is infectious, with the recent viral moment from an earlier show “Don’t like menthols!” almost officially added to the song’s intro by crowd and frontman alike. Undoubtedly some of the finest pop created in recent years, when combined with the group's renowned life presence, it’s like an amplification of euphoria fired at the audience. Most bands would kill for singles like this in their live repertoire. For The 1975 it’s only the beginning. 

Now with such a vast and varying discography behind them, the group can take their time through this segment to display all sides of their sound. Breakthrough hit ‘Chocolate’ feels worlds away from the band they’ve become.  They’ve still got that enviable quality of producing a hit, but the artistic growth is a joy to behold. Feeling reflective and perhaps slightly sombre the group revisit cult favourite ‘Paris’ (supposedly chosen by fans scream but written on the set list, is this still more of the illusion?) and a heart-wrenching story about the origins of the line “What about these feelings I’ve got?”  leads into a devastating performance of ‘I Couldn't Be More in Love’.

Whilst there’s plenty of cultural commentary being spurred by the band throughout the performance, it’s the reactions to Healy deciding to retire the segment of the show where he kisses a fan which could lead to the most interesting social studies.  Genuine boos ring out at his change in heart and reluctance. Ever the quipster, Healy is quick to retort “if you’re trying to shame me into it, it might actually work” and “give me twenty minutes”, but despite this, he sticks firm to his new stance.  In a way, the fans reaction to the star not giving what they want- physical contact, and booing over his removal of that from public access, seems to reaffirm the first half of the show.  

The group close on a run that flirts with invigorating 80s synth pop (‘It’s Not Living’, The Sound), alternative ethereal pop (Somebody Else) and post-punk (Love It If We Made It, Give Yourself A Try). Once again, it’s an envious run of material that reinforces the ‘At Their Very Best’ label. 

By combining two vastly different halves, The 1975 have landed on their greatest singular show to date. It’s an ingenious and daring move from a band at its peak, one that doesn’t have to take these kinds of artistic risks. They could have easily put up some bright spotlights and blasted through their discography, but by offering an experience, they’re not just growing themselves as performers, they’re setting a new marker for every live act to match.

Setlist:

Act I: 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

Be My Mistake

All I Need to Hear

fallingforyou

I Like America & America Likes Me (‘Real World’ version)

About You

When We Are Together

Consumption (interlude)

Act II: At Their Very Best

If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)

TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME

Chocolate

It's Not Living (If It's Not With You)

Paris

I Couldn't Be More in Love

An Encounter (Instrumental break)

Robbers

Somebody Else

I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)

Love It If We Made It

The Sound

Sex

Give Yourself a Try