London – For such a young band, it’s been a long journey for The 1975. Getting together in their early teens, the boys have been through more name changes than Prince, all the while working on a body of material for what became their self-titled debut album which topped the U.K. album chart when it was finally released in September 2013.   After a manic year of touring and promotion, you’d think that Matty, George, Adam and Ross deserved to enjoy the spoils of their hard work.  However, not resting on their laurels for a second, the artists formally known as Drive Like I Do, BIG SLEEP, TALKHOUSE and THESLOWDOWN are back on tour in the U.K during September, before heading out to the U.S., Europe, Asia and even Australia before the end of January 2014.  We joined 2000 others at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire on September 20 to see just how far the boys have come from church halls on the outskirts of Manchester.

The first thing to say is that as a live band, The 1975 are tight. Playing together for ten years will help with that, but seeing them in the flesh, you can appreciate the musicality on display. Opening the set with recent single “The City” both the band and audience were in full voice as the evening got off to a rip-roaring start. Whilst earlier demos were at times a bit messy, the boys are now more restrained and sound much better for it. There’s no doubt that songs could contain more complicated drum fills for example, but it’s the space created by not over playing which allows the rest of the band, in particular the vocals, to shine. Never is this more evident than on “Robbers”. The song has been slowed down and stripped back since it first appeared a few years ago and gives the crowd a moment to reflect fully on the quality of the song writing after the sing and dance-along nature of current single “Girls”.

With over thirty songs released on the deluxe edition of their eponymous debut album, The 1975 have plenty of material to draw upon for their live shows. EP-released tracks such as “fallingforyou” and “Head.Cars.Bending” were called on to add a degree of ambience to the occasion, but it was the more raucous moments which impressed most. “Chocolate” saw everybody in the place, without exception, screaming the lyrics back at the band with Matty stepping away from the mic altogether to allow the fans to do all the work on the second verse. There’s something wonderfully weird about the band’s most well-known song.  It has virtually nothing the listener can relate to, yet when a couple of thousand people are singing along so passionately, it doesn’t seem that ridiculous to indeed have “guns hidden under your petticoat”.

“Chocolate” was the last song in the set proper, but the band weren’t finished there. The crowd went crazy as the band returned to the stage to play through “Sex” a song which features possibly the best lyric from the album – “I’m not trying to stop you love, but if we’re gonna do anything we might as well just f**k”. In an age where lyrical obscurity seems at a premium amongst their peers, it’s refreshing to hear something so honest. Bringing the night to a close, the band, as always, ended with “You” a song with potentially the catchiest refrain of any in their catalogue and a somewhat strange omission from the standard version of the album

The evening as a whole was a mightily impressive performance from a band touring their debut album. As previously mentioned, the boys have been together for a good while, but selling out a venue the size of the Shepherd’s Bush Empire with the sort of already-loyal fans which know every word of every song (EP releases included) is some feat.   With the band already claiming to have material ready to go for a follow up album, there’s every chance that future shows on their mammoth tour will see new tracks. That said, there is enough diversity in their set already to keep audiences interested. The ability to dip in and out of several genres, often within the same song, ensures that there’s something for everyone within the show – or perhaps more fittingly based on tonight, everything for everyone. In the band’s opening song, Matty sings “If you wanna find love then you know where the city is”, it appears that tonight the band found plenty in London.