Florence And The Machine

Brighton Centre, Brighton, Sunday, November 23

IN THE rather sterile environment of the Brighton Centre, Florence’s acolytes gathered, making the most of a Sunday night concert by turning the evening into an act of worship – with Florence as high priestess, asking us to not give up hope in these troubled times.

Florence has always belted out her songs, but her voice has gained more nuance on her latest album – however, the sound system of the Brighton Centre veered on the unsubtle side, rendering even the softest songs into quite a bellow.

This hardly mattered at all for the most part, but it would have been nice to have had a change of tone in the quieter moments.

Wearing a stunning light, almost translucent dress and running and twirling across the stage with unstoppable energy, Florence didn’t speak until after the fourth song.

When she did, it was in a timid school-girlish voice at complete odds with her powerful singing voice, which was particularly in evidence when singing Patricia, an homage to Patti Smith, and What Kind of Man?

With her parental art history background, you know you will always get some striking visuals at a Florence And The Machine concert and tonight was no exception.

A sinuous wooden stage that stuck out into the auditorium provided her with ample space to do her signature barefoot dancing, with the back lighting making her seem more ethereal than ever.

Above the stage hung folds of cloth that sometimes unspooled – though unfortunately as soon as you realised they resembled old-fashioned hand towel rolls the magic was lost a bit.

The evening was a solid set of moving, raw songs from the new album High As Hope, including South London Forever where we were encouraged to hold hands with the person next to us, and fan favourites from her debut album Lungs.

During the energy-filled Dog Days Are Over we were told to embrace the stranger next to us and put away our phones to really feel the moment before exhorting us to stand up and dance.

With an encore ending with a beautifully lit Shake it Out, with rose gold confetti falling down on our heads, it was a life-affirming night.

Emily Angus