Saturday, August 04, 2012

Florence and Her Machine In Toronto

Florence + The Machine played in Melbourne for this new album on the weekend I flew out to come to Toronto, so when I saw the date for her North American tour into Canada the universe seemed to telling me that I should go! After debating for weeks about whether to gamble on getting tickets from a re-sale website to this sold out show, Kylie, Chloe and I took the plunge, got tickets for the lawn section, and made our way down to the Molson Amphitheatre on an island on Lake Ontario last night.

We arrived and found a patch of grass just in time to hear The Walkmen play their set, being the second band for the night. I had heard them at Harvest whilst I was in line for food, and thus was keen to see them once I had spotted them on this bill.

A band from NYC, the lead introduced a bass player from Fleet Foxes as a substitute on stage for the evening, and then proceeded with their set of indie folk rock tunes. They were really good, and held the growing crowd's attention.

Another thing that was holding our attention on the hill at this time, however, was the mammoth-sized beer cans we had purchased, being 750ml cans - massive!

I was really impressed with this venue, which was easy to get to via streetcar, and the view on the hill was amazing! Sitting with the stage directly in front, the city and the CN Tower was in our right field of vision, and a glorious sunset on the left. The sound was good, and the facilities were ample.

This show, being part of her Ceremonials tour promoting her sophomore album, contained most of this release and just a couple of tracks from the epic Lungs.

Flo did not use her voice and it's range as much as she has on other occasions when I have seen her live, and utilised the backing vocalist for several bigger sections of some of her songs, but this is totally forgivable given that it's the end of a very long tour and year of performing.

Opening with Only If For A Night and What The Water Gave Me, she then chatted to the huge crowd as her English accent carried across the masses.

She encourgaged the type of concert crowd behaviour that security must dread, with Rabbit Hole (Raise It Up), before talking about writing Heartlines when she was far and away from home for some time last tour. Ending the set with the huge Shake It Out and Dog Days Are Over had the whole crowd singing and dancing along, which sounded amazing.

Returning for a two song encore, Never Let Me Go and No Light, No Light ended the night. It was so great to see her live again, and to see a stadium swell and unite to these epic tracks.

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