TORONTO – Florence Welch is a singer who belongs on stage.
A totally theatrical performer with a big, booming ethereal voice, the lead singer of Florence And the Machine even made throwing her sheer black cape over her head at one point during the British band’s 80-minute sold-out show Saturday night at Kool Haus a totally palatable gesture.
One gets the sense her immense talent will only grow and her striking pale, tall, thin frame and flaming red hair has already made her a fashion muse.
Welch’s heavily percussive pop-dance-soul music first broke through last year with the breakout punk-infused hit, Kiss With A Fist, from her Mercury prize-nominated debut disc, Lungs, but has since spawned other singles like Dogs Days Are Over and Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up), both of which were greeted with major enthusiasm on Saturday night.
The album also recently picked up the BRIT award for best album.
For her part, the 23-year-old Welch, backed by a five piece band - aka The Machine - that included a harpist, seemed to be overjoyed to be back in Canada after performing last November at The Mod Club Theatre.
“You’ve lifted us out of our mid-tour slump,” she claimed as the show drew to a close. “This is why we do this and I’ve never said that in my life!”
Opening the evening with Howl, Welch was dressed in head-to-toe back, that cape, a fedora, leather shorts and ballerina flats, and danced and skipped happily around the stage that was adorned with a William Morris-looking tapestry backdrop with flowers and vines wrapped around her mic stand.
She was also prone to holding her arms either in front of her or out to each side to emphasize a note and even instructed the audience to jump in the air or throw their hands up.
Welch, whose distinctive voice conjures up other across the pond originals like Beth Orton, Kate Bush, PJ Harvey, Sinead O’ Connor and Annie Lennox, excelled on the clap-happy Between Two Lungs; I’m Not Calling You A Liar, which spawned a major sing-a-long; and Dog Days Are Over, whose lyrics she claimed she had been screwing up every night previously.
“For you Canada I’ll get it right!” she said before declaring afterwards: “You cured me of my amnesia.”
But it was the truly exciting Drumming Song, which found Welch hitting some major notes and flailing around the stage, that proved to be the stand out song of the night, followed closely by the encore songs You’ve Got The Love and Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up).
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SET LIST
Howl
Kiss With a Fist
Hurricane Drunk
My Boy Builds Coffins
Between Two Lungs
Hardest of Hearts
Drumming Song
Cosmic Love
Blinding
I’m Not Calling You A Liar
Dog Days Are Over
ENCORE:
You’ve Got the Love
Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)
