At Their Very Best was the fourth concert tour by English indieart pop band the 1975 in support of their fifth studio album Being Funny in a Foreign Language (2022). It had a total of seven legs with 93 cumulative shows across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.
Written and directed by frontman Matty Healy,[1] the show received unanimous critical acclaim, with praise on the concept, production, boundary-pushing staging, and Healy's performance. Rolling Stone declared it as "a defining blueprint on how to do arena shows" and "the most impressive live show" of 2022.[2] A follow-up tour, with newly expanded production, commenced in arenas in North America in 2023 titled Still... At Their Very Best.[3]
Background
The band was set to embark on the 2021 shows of Music for Cars tour but ultimately cancelled the entire tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they have confirmed that they have been working on their fifth studio album.[4] On 29 June 2022, the band announced the album titled Being Funny in a Foreign Language, releasing it on 14 October the same year.[5][6]
The group announced the tour along with its North American dates on 3 August 2022.[7] It was followed by UK and Ireland tour dates, announced on 1 September 2022.[8]
On 13 February 2023, the group announced a headlining concert at the Finsbury Park, deemed as their "biggest UK headline show ever".[9]
Concert synopsis
The show was written and directed by frontman Healy. The set, modeled after the interior of a suburban home, was designed by the band's frequent collaborator Tobias Rylander, and is adorned with antique furniture, bedside lamps, and old televisions embedded with LED screens to display concert visuals. On one end of the stage is a large spiral staircase, while the other end is covered by a roof atop which Healy performs the song "I Like America and America Likes Me". At the center of the stage is a large door frame that evokes the rectangle symbol present across the cover art for the band's early discography. The set is also surrounded by windowsills through which more stage lights are projected, as well as a large streetlamp that hangs over the roof of the house. Rylander cited Stanley Kubrick as an inspiration for the set, aiming to create a contrast between the "cozy" suburban backdrop and the darker undertones of Healy's performance onstage.[10][11][12]
The show is split into two parts: the first half (The 1975 Presents: Being Funny in a Foreign Language) was characterized by The Observer as "part performance art, part stage play, part Charlie Kaufman movie about a rock star in crisis," and the second half (At Their Very Best) as a traditional concert that incorporates more of the band's past discography.[13][14]
"The first part of the show is about me. It’s about how if you’re a single guy and you’ve spent a year or so alone on the internet, you go mental. The show is about looking at masculinity, looking at being famous. It’s about what’s real and what’s sincere and not sincere."
The two halves were separated by an interlude titled "Consumption" where Healy depicts masturbation, eats a raw steak, and delivers 20 press-ups in immediate succession in front of television screens showing news clips, which he then appears to climb into.[16][17] In the US leg of the tour, Healy got a tattoo on stage that read "iM a MaN".[18] Healy has also invited both male and female members of his audience to kiss him during his performance of the song "Robbers" and, on one occasion, sucked a fan's thumb.[19][20]The Guardian said it sparked conversations regarding consent, fantasy and art in 2022, and noted that Healy asked for fans' permission first.[16]
Set list
This set list is representative of the show on 8 January 2023 in Brighton, England. It does not represent all dates throughout the tour.[21]
Jack Antonoff and Zem Audu performed a medley of Bleachers' "All My Heroes" and "Rollercoaster" during the concert on 29 November 2022 in San Francisco.[23]
Taylor Swift performed The 1975's "The City" and a debut live performance of her single "Anti-Hero" during the concert on 12 January 2023 in London, England.[24]
Charli XCX performed "Vroom Vroom" during the concert on 20 January 2023 in Manchester, England.[25]
Tim Healy performed a cover of "All I Need to Hear" in Newcastle, England, then reprising this performance for the band's Finsbury Park concert.
Lewis Capaldi performed covers of "Antichrist" and Taylor Swift's "Love Story" during the concert on 25 January 2023 in Newcastle, England.[26]
Reception
The show received unanimous critical acclaim with five star reviews from the Rolling Stone, NME,[27]The Observer,[13]The Telegraph,[28]Evening Standard,[29] and Metro,[30] among others. Rolling Stone declared it as "a defining blueprint on how to do arena shows" and "the most impressive live show" of 2022,[2] with the Evening Standard declaring the 1975 as "the most compelling pop band on the planet".[31]
Clips from the show went viral on TikTok and other social media platforms, prompting wide media coverage of his onstage actions.[32][33][34] In Rolling Stone's review of the performance, the magazine stated that Healy delivered "a subversive and surreal take on modern masculinity [that] when viewed in isolation on social media, that all-importance nuance is entirely absent."[35]
On 21 July 2023, while performing in Malaysia, the organisers of the Good Vibes Festival forced the band to prematurely end their performance under pressure by the authorities after Healy criticised the country's widespread anti-LGBTQ+ laws and kissed fellow bandmate Ross MacDonald. Healy stated that he "made a mistake. When we were booking shows, I wasn't looking into it. [...] So I pulled the show yesterday and we had a conversation, we said 'you know what, we can't let the kids down because they're not the government'".[36][37] Malaysian authorities forced the organisers to immediately halt and cancelled the rest of the three-day festival citing that Healy's "controversial conduct and remarks" are "against the traditions and values of the local culture".[38] Human rights and LGBT activist Peter Tatchell, writing for The Guardian wrote that criticism of Healy and the band "deflect attention from where the criticisms should be most urgently directed: against the homophobia of the Kuala Lumpur regime." He also expressed that Healy is no white saviour for showing solidarity to the community as "queer rights are a universal human right, not a western one".[39] On 23 July 2023, the band announced the cancellation of their concerts in Jakarta and Taipei, citing "current circumstances" that made it "impossible to proceed with the scheduled shows".[40] Accordingly, this made Singapore the only stand-alone Asian stop for Leg 6.[40][a]
Broadcast
The sold-out show at Madison Square Garden on 7 November 2022 was livestreamed globally on Twitch, presented by Amazon Music.[41] A live recording was released on Amazon Prime Video and premiered on 6 January 2023.[42]
Gallery
Photos taken on the tour's 14 December 2022 sold out show in Minnesota depicting a partial view of the stage design modified with Christmas lights.
Tour dates
List of concerts, showing date, city, country, venue, and opening act
^The stops in Kuala Lumpur/Sepang and Jakarta were scheduled to be a part of Good Vibes and We The Fest festivals respectively while Taipei was scheduled to be a stand-alone concert.
^Performance forced to end prematurely after Healy kissed a male band member onstage and criticised the Malaysian government over its LGBTQ+ policies. The entire three-day festival was also subsequently cancelled.[64]
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