Florence + The Machine — The ‘Everybody Scream’ Tour

Live in Glasgow

By Joseph Wear

‘Whatever you’ve been through, whatever you are going through, just know that I see you and we will try to get through it together,’ announces Florence Welch, to the crowd of tens of thousands in the audience, midway through ‘Shake It Out’ from her second studio album Ceremonials. ‘Shake It Out’ is a cathartic release of everything that weighs heavy on your shoulders and implores you to move past it, no matter how painful the process may be. This was only the beginning of what became a process of freedom and feeling through music and performance..

On Monday 9th February, Florence + The Machine stopped at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro for their ‘Everybody Scream’ tour, in support of their sixth studio album of the same name. What followed was a two hour celebration of every human emotion under the sun – rage, ecstasy, longing, to name just a few. This celebration was enacted through the creation of an entire world where Welch was the central figure–an anti-heroine who you rooted for as she grappled with the effects of fame on her social life and love life. 

Paris Paloma opened the show, a similarly ethereal and otherworldly artist who you can tell was deeply inspired by Welch’s artistry. She set the mood for the show perfectly, a melodramatic grandiosity that led seamlessly into Welch’s own performance. From the opening number of Paloma’s set to the closing number of Welch’s, the production created a portal which every member of the audience was sucked into.  

This portal was the entrance to that world I alluded to before. Recreating the twisted and wicked mythos put forward by Welch through the music, the show was filled to the brim with horror elements. The show begins with blood-curdling screams before Welch is revealed singing the titular opening track, ‘Everybody Scream’. During the song ‘Daffodil’, Welch takes on the role of vampire and snaps the necks of the four backup dancers accompanying her on stage. These four women spend the rest of the show creeping around the stage. They convulse and flail as if possessed, creating the sense that they are manifestations of the songs themselves and all the emotions that they conjure. 

As the show unfolded in front of the audience, I had the feeling that Welch could sing their entire discography and we all would have stood, enraptured, for the whole thing. Welch has a treasure trove of witchy incantations that would have worked visually, sonically and aesthetically with the show she put on. It made me believe that this was not just another show for Welch, but a commitment to the mythical energy of the band’s catalogue of music. The threads from an album like Lungs, their debut, clearly follow all the way through to this performance almost fifteen years later.

‘Dog Days Are Over’, Lungs’ lead single, was the band’s first big hit, catapulting them to fame. Being performed with every subsequent tour, the song still stands as their most popular. There was a general feeling in the crowd that this was the one everybody was waiting to hear. Looking around the room, a particularly varied crowd of people (both young and old, men and women, couples and groups of friends) waited with baited breath for the opening notes of that song. When they came, the room erupted. The first verse and chorus were the loudest the room had been all night, and the euphoria coursing through the audience was palpable. And then, Welch did something I found magnificent. Before the final chorus, she made a plea to the audience: ‘Put your phones away and jump.’ Even more magnificent, everybody listened. It was the only crowd I have ever been in where I did not see one phone camera filming the artist on stage, just a group of people living entirely in the moment, enjoying one of the most uplifting, rapturous songs of all time. It does not surprise me that Welch was able to garner the sort of crowd who were willing to stop filming. Her stage presence felt as if stepping out of the real world for a short period of time and into a world where you could just exist and all of your problems felt oh so very far away.

So, I return to the quote that I began with: ‘Whatever you’ve been through, I see you and we will try to get through it together.’ This message felt particularly poignant because it comes across like the thesis statement of Welch’s career. Her music invites you to feel everything you have inside of you through a microscope of witches, covens, and fantasy. Through that lens, you feel much more equipped to work through your darkest moments. And Welch is there, with you, holding your hand. For two hours, I felt utterly and entirely seen and understood. That feeling is worth ten times what I paid for my ticket.