Florence + The Machine review: Towering performer twirls back with power and poetry

Go with the Flo: Florence + The Machine performs at the Royal Festival Hall
ANGELA LUBRANO/LIVEPIX
Andre Paine9 May 2018

Three years and two birthdays since her last album, at 31 Florence Welch has ditched the partying and hangovers — but not the eye-catching theatrics.

At a relatively intimate comeback gig ahead of next month’s fourth album, High As Hope, a barefoot Welch was soon skipping and twirling across a stage filled with flowers.

“Just because it’s the Royal Festival Hall doesn’t mean you can’t dance,” bawled Welch, whose elegant silk dress didn’t deter her from a sweaty physical workout. While her wailing choruses created an enveloping wall of sound alongside a formidable band featuring harp and violin, there was a compelling vulnerability to her lyrics.

Welch has spoken of the soul-searching and sobriety that helped the making of her new record in Peckham, near where she grew up in Camberwell (“swampy south London” as she called it).

The latest single, Hunger, was rousing rock that started life as a poem and traced Welch’s heartache to her teenage years. “I still don’t have anything figured out and I’m very confused — but I’m 31,” she admitted.

Whatever her issues off stage, Welch is an indomitable performer. For Dog Days Are Over, she demanded the audience put their phones away so they could throw themselves fully into the raucous indie favourite.

Her songwriting may have matured but there was no absence of drama on the new material. Patricia was a lyrical love letter to Patti Smith, while 100 Years had Welch leaping up and down as if auditioning for Stomp.

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During a brisk rendition of Delilah, she roamed the aisles and clasped hands with fans. Just when it seemed the songs couldn’t get any bigger, the Festival Hall organ was employed for a joyous encore of Shake It Out.

A decade on from her debut single, Welch’s towering tunes are as poetic and powerful as ever.

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