Chicago- November 9th 2022

Seeing The 1975 live in Chicago at the Aragon Ballroom might be the closest you’ll ever get to experiencing what a concert must have been like in the 80’s. The band drinks and smokes cigarettes on stage while performing songs from their newest album “Being Funny in a Foreign Language.” Due to COVID-19, their previous tour supporting the album “A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships” had to be canceled and could not be resumed for their next album “Notes on a Conditional Form” either, which allows for a variation of setlists and making each concert feel unique.

Considering this show was organized by Q101 in correlation with their “Twisted Xmas” events and not officially a part of the band’s tour, their stage design ended up being a minimal version of what it usually looks like. The 1975 – ‘At their Very Best’ is an impressive architectural set that looks like a house from the 50’s, consisting of two floors, a spiral staircase, old TVs, and a rooftop for the lead singer Matty Healy to climb up to. For this show, however, only a few pieces of 50’s period furniture from the living room was set up on stage for the band to interact with. One of them being an armchair with the sole purpose of creating Matty’s iconic entrance: his back to the audience, one arm casually leaning over, a bottle of wine in one hand, cigarette in the other, sunglasses on, a classic black suit, and an attitude like he was born on this stage.

The show began with “Looking for Somebody (To Love),” a song from their newest album that can be attributed to the pop genre, although it is quite impossible to ascribe the band to only one genre. Depending on who you ask, they have been described as: pop, pop rock, rock, electropop, funk rock, indie pop, indie rock, synthpop, and alternative. And maybe that’s exactly why they’re so beloved by their fans (who even go as far as camping out for 24 hours in the Chicago cold enduring snow and rain) because they reinvent themselves all the time while staying true to their core, meaning, you’ll know if it’s a The 1975 song, not sure why, you just do.

In the middle of the concert, Matty took a break in-between songs to tell the audience what the album was actually about, which is simply this: love. And he has a way of making you feel exactly that, not only through the lyrics and the songs themselves but through his performance as well. Interacting with the audience was a big part of the concert that reached its peak at the end of the show. After the band had come back on stage for their encore, Matty decided to join the fans by going into a U-shaped barricade and encouraging everyone to sing “Be My Mistake,” with him. That being said, after a couple of seconds of complete silence, the song began with only him and his guitar, no other instruments, and no microphone, which resulted in an unforgettable four minutes of hearing 5,000 people unite and sing this beautiful song together.

In the end, what makes it seem like you’re being transported to the 80’s is the fact that “the 1975” talks about political topics and social problems in their songs similar to how bands such as Pink Floyd did it back then. Specifically, the song “Love It If We Made It,” which they performed halfway through the concert, uses direct quotes from people such as Donald Trump in their lyrics to criticize modern society. They tackle various subjects in their clever written lyrics and address real-life problems without necessarily stating their own opinion, simply showing how it is. It could be described as the song equivalent of a “black mirror” episode.

To sum up, The 1975, has always had a way of describing perfectly what thousands of people feel, not only by putting it into the right words but showing it through their music videos and artwork. They fully embody their music to the point where it all ties into each other like one perfect, well-thought-out act. Luckily, Matty announced that they will be back next year.

Words: Shalyn Delhaes

Photos: Jordan Curtis Hughes