First things first, the voice is back.
The strained vocal chords that forced Florence + the Machine to cancel festival appearances in Spain and Portugal a week and a half ago have healed, once again releasing Florence Welch’s soaring, octave-hopping voice on the world. On Friday night, the eyes of the music industry were focused on B.C. and a sold out and soggy Deer Lake Park in Burnaby, the location lucky enough to be the first stop on Florence + The Machine’s North American tour.
“I lost my voice a while,” Welch said smiling, five songs into the set. “It seems like it’s back.”
If Welch felt that she needed five songs under her belt before confirming what the reverential Deer Lake Park crowd knew from the first note, it’s because she rightfully wanted this comeback to be about her music, not her throat.
Beginning proceedings with the stately baroque of “Only If For A Night,” Welch accelerated the pace with “What The Water Gave Me,” instantly switching from gentle pirouettes on the former to Axl Rose-style dashes (in heels!) from one side of the stage to the other.
“We’re encouraging you to sacrifice someone tonight,” she announced to general confusion. “It’s going to be a bloodbath.” Further explanation revealed that what she really wanted was a sea of fans on their friends’ shoulders for “Rabbit Heart (Raise Me Up),” the first genuine party track of the night.
The hits kept coming. “Spectrum” was introduced with a plea for the crowd to express itself through its dancing – “Not with skill, with enthusiasm” – before demonstrating the vocal power Welch has at her command. “Leave My Body” was a swift diversion to an Adele-style gloom-ballad, before the party kicked into overdrive with a Florence-conducted sing-along to “Shake It Out” and the inevitable closer of “Dog Days Are Over,” the singer hitching up her gown to tear back and forth across the stage.
As a singer-songwriter, Florence Welch is in the front line of sophisto-pop. She makes music for people who, quite rightfully, never wanted to fall out of love with pop. Judging by Friday night’s events though, it’s her performance that has taken her from indie rock clubs to global superstardom. Simultaneously blending ethereally aloofness and an effortless down-to-earthness, she’s created a stage persona that’s the practically perfect post-modern pop star. Whether she was delivering an unapologetic power ballad or leading the crowd with a rock and roll “One, two, three, JUMP!” she did at all with grace and charm, the mark of unteachable charisma.
“On our way here we managed to lose our luggage,” she said laughing midway through her set, sharing the memory with her musical partner, Isabella “Machine” Summers, “and get kicked out of an airport restaurant called Hogtown.”
Simultaneously current and timeless, Florence Welch has reclaimed the position of Pop Diva for singers and musicians, reducing gyrating, vocally-challenged pretenders (Madonna being the most obvious example) to the role of children’s entertainers.
Florence + and the Machine knew that this concert was a big deal. The hype was justified. North America has a lot to look forward to.
