Live Review: Florence + the Machine with The Staves @ SSE Arena, Belfast

Source: All photos my own

Having topped the charts in eight countries within her album’s first week, Florence + the Machine is premiering her How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful Tour at the newly-renamed SSE Arena in Belfast. With her trademark soaring vocals and Stevie Nicks-like elegance, support band The Staves are a wonderfully satisfying contrast to tonight’s headliner, complimenting Florence’s danceability with their sleepy falsetto and honey sweet harmonies.

To liken the sister trio to Haim would be a generic comparison. Blending indie folk with a melancholic yet poppy air which builds to a Fleetwood Mac-esque denouement, the sisters from “glorious Watford” have a sound not unlike Fleet Foxes. Playing against a glittery backdrop as purple light floods the stage, the girls – dressed all in black with perfectly straightened locks – gather around the microphone in sweet sisterhood to sing acapella. “Even the good die young,” croon the girls on ‘Let Me Down’, alternating lead vocals. The gentle melody and guitar pop sensibilities of new track ‘Horizons’ create an atmosphere of Mississippi dreaming, contrasting humorously with various anecdotes about the city (“We’ve had some of our worst hangovers in Belfast”) and the fact that many of the band’s songs are in fact about dentistry. Closing in a folksy haze, The Staves are in agreement with Flo about there being no better place to kick off an arena tour.

Emerging from low spotlights amid a shimmer of grey just as night falls, Florence Welch’s signature red tresses flow like her oversized sleeves as the crowd delights in her presence. Dashing across the stage, tambourine in hand, Florence revels in the beauty of her own performance, twirling with an almost childlike rapture. Beaming and barefoot, she breaks into How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful ‘s lead single ‘Ship to Wreck’ with a stomping yet ladylike presence reminiscent of that of a pixie. In her appropriately harmonious speaking voice, she tells of how How Big… was “brought across the sea to you”, before launching into an impassioned ‘Shake It Off’ with the audience as a choir, jumping over security guards into the crowd as they chase after her. Florence’s stage presence is unparalleled as she works her adoring audience with graceful ease.

As The Machine play on, they strike a nearly perfect balance between the band’s new material and the hits, not that either isn’t greeted with excited cries and singing from the electric atmosphere of the venue. Between Kate Bush-like theatrics, hand gestures and hair whipping, an adorably sultry ‘You Got the Love’ follows, Flo’s chart-topping The Source/Candi Staton cover that catapulted her to fame back in 2009. She stops every so often just to take it all in and she is forgiven for reflecting on such an odyssey of a journey, encapsulated through her genuine love of performing and the sheer emotional input in her art. 

The set is punctuated with several twinkling low-key numbers from Lungs, as Florence comes forward from the spotlight like a glorious, ethereal Madonna. Her renditions of ‘St. Jude’ and ‘Cosmic Love’ are simply beautiful; a sea of phones appears in the air but somehow without the usual gimmick, everyone together “always in this twilight”.

Whilst Florence + the Machine shine during their more mellow tracks, it is arguably in their heavier tracks they fare better as Florence’s hard edge becomes her. Donning flower crowns, bras and flags thrown to her from the barriers, she powers on through ‘Queen of Peace’ and a sophisticated, glorious ‘Spectrum’. Backed by a horn section and harpist, the crowd is enthralled during an anticipated and mighty ‘Dog Days Are Over’ as a full moon waxes on a screen above the stage.

“For a broken heart, something you love, something you’re afraid of!” Florence exclaims, encouraging fans to remove an article of clothing and swing it above their head during an almost brooding ‘What Kind of Man’, as audience members duly oblige. As the final reverb of the song fills the venue she collapses to the floor, Florence Welch, one of the best performers of her time.