I can indeed confirm that they are STILL… AT THEIR VERY BEST!

In our little venture to the other side of the water, we found ourselves looking at the doors of OVO Hydro in Glasgow, hours before the first leg of the 1975 show on the 8th of February. It was not only our first gig together with Alex outside of Dublin, but it was also a very special night for me, seeing my favourite band perform at their peak, as they love to say, “At Their Very Best.” Since hearing their already iconic performance in Madison Square Garden late 2022, I have been waiting for a chance to see them and their show, so if I am very biased in many things I write, I am not very sorry in advance. 

Performance 

When it comes to Matty Healy, I feel like you flip a coin every show, and there is a high chance it might land in a way that you do not want it to. Before their latest album Being Funny in a Foreign Language came out, which I believe showed great maturity and change compared to their previous records, I always had doubts about their live performances, all because of the frontman Matty.

Personally as a fan, I feel like even though Matty represents a large portion of “the 1975 product”, some of his most charismatic and charming aspects could often be pretty annoying and detrimental as well, especially for their live performances. Yes, I love how cheeky he can be, the fact that he smokes and drinks as a theatrical part of the show, his weird dance moves and his very controversial choice of words, but on a day where all of these are not in perfect harmony and balance, the shows can go below your expectations.

Until BFIAFL, I often saw and read about how Matty could not perform, sing live properly, drink too much on stage, or many other situations that failed to keep it “balanced”. I will not get into details about his past with substances because they are no longer relevant, but it was true that in many of their shows, he was not feeling like performing, or even was in the right state to perform. However, since “At Their Very Best” tour, all of the OG band members (Ross, George, Adam and especially Matty) plus the beautiful additions like Polly and James, and John stepped up the band to another dimension and level that could be easily noticed.

When I saw the 1975 in Dublin in a festival last summer, even though it is not very comparable because it was more of a “festival gig” rather than a 1975 show, my coin landed in the wrong way and it was one of the performances that fell very short of my expectations. So before seeing the actual show of the tour, I was filled with a mixture of nervousness and a slight hope that they would deliver perfectly this time. Well, they did.

From the second they took on stage, you could see that Matty wanted to be there, and wanted to perform, as he also mentioned later on how he loved being in Glasgow. So it was definitely one of his good days. I loved his crowd interaction just before playing When We Are Together, where he asked the crowd if anybody was in a long-distance relationship, while he was acting a bit blue and lighting up his 5th cigarette for the night. Same with later on during the show, where he made a speech about how being in Glasgow was one of the most fun places to be, as the crowd roared back and reciprocated the love Matty was giving to them. However, the Matty quote-of-the-day was “Nostalgia man, it is a sickness” which he mumbled sitting in front of his piano just before playing Change of Heart.

I did not realise until seeing them live, how theatrical this whole tour is. Most of the songs, Matty acts the lyrics, creates a scene, which really helps deliver the emotions and/or message he is trying to give. The perfect example of this theatrical performance was during Change of Heart, where Matty and Polly acted the lyrics as if the conversations in the songs were actually happening, followed by them having a shot of drink before the bridge. Another one was just before Part of The Band, where we see Matty kind of being “brainwashed” by all of the news, controversies and memes on the TV just before him. All of this theatrical element of their performance was very interesting and beautiful to be a part of, which I have never realised before. 

Another thing I realised about the performance, is how Polly-dependent it was compared to previous tours. The band definitely upped her role by giving her a solo song (Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America) and another verse in Change of Heart, on top of her famous part in About You. Even though Polly’s increased involvement was much more evident, it was possible to see John’s and James’ as well. I love how all of the band came together and hope they stay together for the tours in the future.

Production

For those who have never seen the videos of the show, or the show itself, the At Their Very Best Tour takes place in Matty’s house. The stage is decorated as we are inside the house, with the band distributed in several floors and rooms. The show starts by the band entering the house after we hear them parking their car outside. They enter the house one by one, waking Matty up as he sleeps on the couch, just before he sits before his piano and starts playing the riff for the opening tune The 1975.

The house decoration makes us feel cozy and intimate, with yellow small table lamps switched on by the band members one by one as they make their way on stage. Just behind Matty, we see a bunch of old television screens and vintage radio vibe boxes, with his couch just before them. We see Matty moving around the house and the floors throughout the show, and even going on the roof when he sings Me, sitting on the roof with the spotlight on him. On the roof level, just above the house, we see the classic neon lighting that says Still… At Their Very Best, lighting on and off between some songs.

Different parts of the stage, which were different parts of the house, had doors and windows in between them, from which Matty and the band often used to go in-between parts of the stage. I loved the whole design and the concept of a house as the stage, which makes us feel like we are in his safe space, or inside his mind, where the magic happens. I think that this idea would have been perfect for Harry Styles when he was touring for his album Harry’s House. It would have suited his vibe, the concept of the album and the sound very much, but I am so happy the 1975 did it instead of him. 

When the first part of the show ends, which consists most of the songs from their latest album BFIAFL, Matty leaves the stage by entering one of the television screens. Next thing we see is he pops up on top of a mini-stage set up in the middle of the crowd, just on top of the sound control point. I did not know that they used another stage in the middle of the crowd since I have not seen them do this in their previous shows. So it was very engaging, exciting and nice to see Matty performing I Like America & America Likes Me solo in between the two sets of the show. They used that small stage in their final song People, when Matt was joined by Ross and Adam. 

Setlist

The setlist was slightly different from the Madison Square Garden show, with a few additions such as Change of Heart, Be My Mistake, Me, JC2005GBA, Heart Out, and People. However, the show followed the same structure, starting with the first hour being mostly songs from BFIAFL, followed by a small filler/break which is called Matty’s Nightmare, including I Like America, and JC2005GBA, and the last hour being the “classics''. I loved the addition of Change of Heart, but would rather have had Give Yourself a Try instead of People as the final song. 

In their Dublin set, they did not play most of BFIAFL, and I was very disappointed because I could not get to see The 1975 (BFIAFL) and Part of The Band. It was very good to have the two songs back at the setlist for this show. 

I find the setlist very satisfying in this tour, considering the fact that they have been around for a while now, they have a lot of big songs they could play, and they play almost all of them. 26 songs are a lot of songs to perform, so they have my huge respect for filling up the setlist as much as they can in this tour. I also loved how they divided the show into segments: how it starts with a slower, more mature and melancholic vibe that was painted in their latest album, and then moving onto the dancy high energy classics. It feels like you get to experience all of the phases and different emotions they went through over the years. 

Venue & Crowd

I want to start by mentioning how cool the arena was from the outside. It was honestly a beautiful change of scenery from our “usual spot” 3Arena Dublin. Seeing the stadium-like shape and appearance, with glowing green colours surrounding it already got us excited hours before we walked into the venue. OVO Hydro was bigger than we expected, with a pretty big open space for all of the standing tickets. The seated section was way higher up compared to 3Arena, since there was the VIP section in between the standing ground and the seated tickets. I am not sure if they could make the second stage in the crowd because of how big the venue was, or if they do it in every show of this part of their tour, but it was very very cool to see them performing in the middle of the crowd on top of the sound point, which caught me very off-guard because I was not expecting this at all.

The crowd was very electrifying as I expected it to be since it is Glasgow and it is a 1975 show. Shoutout to this huge guy right next to me who had the time of his life. Thankfully for the first time, the tallest man in the concert was not in front of me, but right next to me instead so I got the chance to actually see the show. Honestly, there is nothing much to be said about the crowd, other than how beautiful they connected with Matty in his "I love Glasgow" speech, and when the whole arena was singing a very pure and raw version of Be My Mistake.

Finishing Touch

The Japanese House took the stage before the 1975, and within seconds, I could tell why. I have not heard the name of the band before, but realised I knew a couple of their songs as they played. It was a very nice warm-up to set the tone for the 1975, as I found their style and sound pretty similar. Considering the fact that George from the 1975 was the producer of their album, it is not surprising to have similar sounds and patterns between their songs. I loved the energy and the charisma of Amber Mary Bain, and checked out her music the second we left the arena.

Finally, I want to thank Alex for agreeing to miss our flight to randomly walk into a 1975 show with me which made us stay up for 36 hours straight trying to make our way back home.

Hot gignwings review

Performance: 🌶🌶🌶🌶

Production: 🌶🌶🌶🌶

Setlist: 🌶🌶🌶🌶

Venue: 🌶🌶🌶🌶

Crowd: 🌶🌶🌶🌶