The 1975 brought the “At Their Very Best” tour to 713 Music Hall in Houston and wow, was it an unforgettable show.
The show started with openers Blackstarkids. The band came out on stage and told everyone to move around, and get the energy going, they opened with “How To Self Destruct”. They took a moment to introduce themselves and thank everyone for coming out to the show, and asked the crowd if they were ready to have a good time. They played songs such as “Jimmy Neutron”, “Frankie Muniz” and even “Fight Club”. In the audience you could hear fans talking about how the song titles were correlated to their childhood memories, and expressed how they liked those little details. During the next few minutes in the show the band split the audience into the 3 sections, they wanted to see which area would jump the highest in the venue, immediately fans cooperated in this competition between each other, raising the energy levels in the room. The last song performed by the band was “Cardigan”, they once again thanked the attendees for coming out to the show and asked them to enjoy the incredible performance The 1975 was going to give. Blackstarkids was a solid opener for this tour, we can’t wait to see what the future holds for them.
Following the performance of Blackstarkids, a giant spotlight lit up the curtains and displayed “The 1975”. Fans immediately cheered, pulled out their phones and took photos of the sign. You could see everyone’s excitement level go up as we got closer and closer to showtime. It was finally time for the band to perform, the curtains dropped and fans filled the venue with their screams and cheers of excitement, the stage resembled a home and had a spiral staircase, bookshelves and tables. A light pole turned on and slowly band members started going on stage, turning on lamps and lights inside the house, the music started playing and the show opened with “Looking for Somebody”. The first part of the set was filled with many songs from the band’s latest album, “Being Funny In a Foreign Language”. “Oh Caroline” and “I’m In Love With You” were played next, fans were singing these songs at the top of their lungs, not missing a beat, it shows how much they love the band and how they relate with the music.
Throughout the show, lead singer Matty Healy would roam the stage, he would sing by the staircase, the living room and even sang on the rooftop of the house during “I Like America & America Likes Me”, everyone in the room was shocked seeing him up that high, he had everyone’s undivided attention at all times. He came down from the rooftop and ended the first segment of the show with “About You” and “When We Are Together”. There were some theatrics during this part of the show where stage crew dressed in lab coats surrounded the stage and set the TV’s up in a formation in front of Healy, he did some pushups in front of the TV’s before crawling and disappearing inside one of them.
The band came back out in a new outfit and started the second act of their show “At Their Very Best”, which included fan favorite songs such as “If You’re Too Shy”, “TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME” and “Me & You Together Song”. During a small break, Healy interacted with fans who gave him two shirts, he said that if he received those shirts he would play “Antichrist” and then stated he was a liar since it was not going to be played, fans laughed along with the singer, Healy asked if they wanted anything else played, “A Change of Heart” was requested and he dedicated the song to Shelby, a fan in attendance. The next songs that were played were fan favorites that brought everyone back in time to the “Tumblr Era” of music. “Robbers”, “Somebody Else”, and “Chocolate” were played back to back and you could see the shock and excitement in fans’ faces as they were hearing some of the most iconic songs live one after the other.
The show ended with “Give Yourself A Try”, fans sang as loud as they could during the final moments of the night. One by one band members put on their coats, turned off the lamps and exited the stage. Healy was the last to leave the stage and he did so by turning off the main light pole power source, he waved his final goodbye and exited the stage. Once the show ended, the venue erupted in cheers having witnessed one of the best bands to exist.
You can buy tickets to see the 1975 on tour here, and if they ever come to a city near you, please please make sure to attend, it’s going to be a show you will never forget.
THE 1975
Photos By Jordan Curtis Hughes, Review by Michael Perea | Exclusively for Music, Why Not!