On Wednesday, I proved Florence + The Machine’s first visit to Finland at Tavastia. Florence was one of last year’s most interesting new artists and it was great to see the debut album Lungs become such a commercial success. They definitely stand out positively among other top-sellers. The success was not a real surprise, though, with an album full of original-sounding potential hit singles.
The warm-up artist was changed just a couple of days before from Sian Alice Group to an unknown Finnish singer-songwriter Anastacia Mouna. She played an extremely short set alone with a piano and didn’t really impress with her songwriting. However, I have to give her credit for a self-confident performance replacing a rock group as an opener for a British platinum-selling artist.
Right from the point when Florence entered, the stage was hers. As the name Florence + The Machine suggests, the band has an important role, but Florence is the star. She has an impressive voice which she uses very skillfully. She sang sentimentally but had a close contact with the audience between songs. From song to song I could tell she was really living with the music, even though my view on her was blocked a lot of the time by others’ heads. When this happened, it was easiest to close ones eyes, since the atmosphere was based mostly on her performance.
The band played very well, but apart from Florence there wasn’t much else to follow than the beautiful playing of the harp. That’s something you don’t really see anywhere and I hadn’t realized that it was the harp played on the album. Seeing it played live was a pleasure both musically and visually.
They succeeded rather well in reproducing the large sound of the album. In the strong percussive parts, especially on Drumming Song, Florence and the bassist did their share of the banging along with the drummer. The final level of the massive sound wasn’t, however, reached. I felt that in order to give room for Florence’s voice, the volume of the band was kept a bit too low at times. Or perhaps I just had too strong filters on my earplugs.
The audience in the sold-out Tavastia comprised of people of surprisingly large variety ages. There seemed to be also both regular concert-goers and the ones attending gigs more infrequently. As the case is on most gigs at Tavastia, the crowd moved very little and kept rather quiet for a long time. However, towards the end of the gig, there was more activity including the synchronized jumping during Dog Days Are Over. Considering their large sound, catchy tunes and Florence’s charming personality, I’d say they will answer for some fantastic gigs on festivals this summer.
Florence + The Machine homepage
Florence + The Machine @ Myspace
Lungs @ Spotify
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