Live Nation Presents Florence + The Machine in Charlotte

Live Nation Presents Florence + The Machine in Charlotte

Florence Welch and her machine of a band made a stop in the Queen City apart of the High As Hope Tour with special opening guest Billie Eilish. The 23-city North America fall headlining tour produced by Live Nation launched on August 5th just a week after the release of the band’s fourth studio album High As Hope.  The tour began in Montreal making coveted stops including Spectrum Center and New York’s Barclays Center.

The tour means to headline the new album High As Hope being the band’s fourth studio album produced by Florence Welch and Emilie Haynie under the Virgin EMI and Republic label. It concludes hits such as “Hunger” and the opening song for this show, “June.” However, regardless of the astonishing set list that fluidly plays out through the bands performance another thing to hint on is the stage set up as well as the presence Welch commands to the audience.

The custom wood paneling and multiple stair levels that the stage exuded created for an acoustic experience that added to the varied musical levels of Welch’s band, including one as classical and entrancing as a harp. The warming light tones reflected on the stage in a perfect pastel color scheme. Adding to even more of the warming nostalgic tone of the stage was a drapery of curtains that came off the ceiling creating an encompassing feeling of warmth which Welch extends like a fire in her performance.

With a fueling passion Welch commends to her audience to not only exude love from oneself but also she encouraged concertgoers to do more interactive things such as holding hands together and to telling their seat neighbor “I love you.” The term “High as Hope” was most certainly present throughout the entire show however, warmth and love was not the only emotions Welch commanded to the audience.  Welch turned up her passion more towards the “weird” side. That being by asking concert members to put up their phones and be as vulnerable as possible and release those feelings “like a hand is holding your heart” as she stated. Not only that but Welch’s ballerina-like dancing turned to vicious motions mimics her melodic change in sound throughout the majority of her music. It is very clear by the passion both Welch and her band members exude as though an individual piece of their soul and raw emotion went into all that was played.

The show both visually, emotionally and musically came together perfectly to summarize whom both Welch and her very talented band are and what kind of emotion and feeling they chose to leave the audience with. Now ten years into their career as a band out of South London and having gone through difference members and gaining high celebrity status did not diminish Welch from enjoying and becoming apart of her crowd towards the end of her set. With a glorious encore consisting of “Big God” and the crowd pleaser “Shake it Out” I can guarantee not one person left Spectrum Center unsatisfied if not higher than hope.

Catch this tour:

Florence + The Machine.net