Review: The 1975 lived up to expectations

Seeing your favorite band live is either the best experience of your life or an absolute terror. Seeing The 1975 was definitely the former. On April 30, throngs of people — including myself — rushed to see The 1975, an indie-rock band from Manchester known for their electric sound.

I arrived at Seattle’s WaMu Theater at 6 p.m., a full two hours earlier than indicated on the ticket. However, there was already a crowd lined up at the entrance despite the fact that the band wasn’t due on stage for three hours. Everyone in line sported some sort of tribute to the band, from colorful shirts to posters that referenced their music and there were eager shrieks of excitement every few minutes.

As for the opening bands, Colouring and Pale Waves both performed well. Colouring grabbed the crowd’s attention with some slow but soulful music while Pale Waves stuck to pop. Both received a plethora of applause, but nothing compared to the cheers for The 1975 as they took the stage and opened with “Love Me” from their new album, “I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It.” The crowd was energized and on their feet from the very beginning.

UW Tacoma student and first time concert goer Sai Ramani Kodavati, says “the positivity and excitement as the band came up on stage got me so much more enthusiastic about the night.”

Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of the concert was the brilliant visuals that accompanied the music. From the multi-colored mist that coated the stage during “Loving Someone” to the calming wave pictures projected over the audience during another song, each one was aesthetically pleasing. Kodavati, whose favorite song was “Loving Someone,” also believed that the fog machine enhanced her experience, “the purple and pink haze from the lights gave it a sort of calm but hyped up feel.”

Lead singer Matt Healy took control of the audience, pausing between songs to converse with the everyone. He connected with every single person in the large crowd through motivational words and the background story behind the songs.

An interesting part of the concert was when Healy asked audience members to put down their phones and take three minutes to simply enjoy the music as he performed “Me.” Most of the songs played during the concert came from their new album, but a few old hits such as “Robbers,” “Girls” and “Menswear” received a great response from the crowd such as Personally, I think the best experience was hearing the song “Somebody Else,” which was the song that inspired me to listen to the rest of their work. The music was interesting— the band has such a unique sound that’s incomparable to any other popular musicians.

After barely 90 minutes, the band closed the show with a three song encore, consisting of  crowd favorite, “Chocolate.” The moment they walked off stage, I felt deflated. Everyone definitely had the energy to listen for another hour, but sadly the concert was over. Kodavati said, “it was one of the best nights of my life because it really brought out the music lover in me and I learned to embrace the moment.” The next time The 1975 comes to Seattle, I would definitely advise everyone to grab a ticket —  it will be worth it.