Following their 2022-23 “At Their Very Best” tour, The 1975 kicked off their “Still… At Their Very Best” tour on Sept. 28 at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California. Since The 1975 is my favorite band, I attended their show in Rosemont, Illinois on Oct. 29 and will be attending their show in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Nov. 22. After watching the band gain popularity since I last saw them in concert in 2022, I was thrilled to see what they would add to their show for this tour. Spoiler alert: I was not disappointed.
Dora Jar, the opener for the tour, was my favorite opening act that I have ever seen. Dora’s angelic voice combined with dramatic guitar chords and loud drums from her band made her set list incredibly entertaining. In addition to her set list, Dora had incredible stage presence and interacted with the audience throughout her performance. Although I had never heard of Dora Jar before it was announced that she was going on tour with The 1975, I enjoyed every song she played and will be sure to check out her music before the Grand Rapids show.
After the curtain concealing the stage fell, the setup was revealed to be a house, including working lamps, a couch, several chairs, spiral staircase, and a roof that would later become the location where Matty Healy sings, “I Like America & America Likes Me”. Around a minute after the curtain fell, a spotlight and sound effects came together to create the illusion of a car pulling up backstage. After hearing the lock of the car came a knock at the door of the stage. As Adam Hann, guitar player for The 1975, opened the door, sound effects of applause and whistles welcomed lead singer Matty Healy onto the stage. Sitting down at the piano, the band opened with the song “The 1975” from their most recent album, Being Funny In a Foreign Language.
Midway through the show, two fans in the front row held up a sign saying, “Choose the color, pick the song” with three different colors. After Healy spotted the sign and picked pink because “Pink is the gayest one”, the two girls removed the pink paper and revealed the song to be “The Ballad of Me and My Brain”. As one of my favorite songs from their 2016 album, I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it, I was delighted that this song was chosen. After confirming that the band would be able to play it, the first notes blared through the arena. After briefly discussing the relevance of the song to his current mental state, Healy added, “Good choice girlies. You just like me for real”.
Different from the 2022 show I attended, this concert included “bits” that consisted of Healy looking at and then lying with a naked wax figure of himself on a patch of fake grass, eating a fake phone on stage, proceeding to do nearly 30 push-ups and then crawling into one of the TV’s on stage, and showing a split screen of him and videos such as Subway Surfers and slime videos while speaking. Although their 2022 concert was my favorite of theirs, I did enjoy these obscure and entertaining bits.
After playing what the majority of the audience thought was the last song, “Give Yourself a Try”, the band thanked the crowd while three out of four of the main members left the stage. As people began to leave, Matty rose to the smaller stage at the back of the arena with Adam Hann and bass player Ross MacDonald. After asking the audience, “Have you got one more in you?”, “People”, from their 2020 album, Notes on a Conditional Form, began to play. Even though I was exhausted and sweaty by this point, I jumped and screamed every word.
Although I left the show drenched in sweat, bleeding, and unable to speak or hear clearly, it was one of the best performances I have ever seen, and I look forward to seeing The 1975 in concert again very soon.
