At Their Very Best
At Their Very Best was the fourth concert tour by English indie art pop band the 1975 in support of their fifth studio album Being Funny in a Foreign Language (2022). It had a total of seven legs with 93 cumulative shows across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.
Location
- North America
- South America
- Europe
- Asia
- Oceania
3 November 2022
16 August 2023
7
93
- American Football
- Blackstarkids
- Bleachers
- Cigarettes After Sex
- The Japanese House
- Bonnie Kemplay
- Matty
- Caroline Polachek
- Wallice
- Naya
Written and directed by frontman Matty Healy,[1] the show received unanimous critical acclaim, with praise on the concept, production, boundary-pushing staging, and Healy's performance. Rolling Stone declared it as "a defining blueprint on how to do arena shows" and "the most impressive live show" of 2022.[2] A follow-up tour, with newly expanded production, commenced in arenas in North America in 2023 titled Still... At Their Very Best.[3]
Background[edit]
The band was set to embark on the 2021 shows of Music for Cars tour but ultimately cancelled the entire tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they have confirmed that they have been working on their fifth studio album.[4] On 29 June 2022, the band announced the album titled Being Funny in a Foreign Language, releasing it on 14 October the same year.[5][6]
The group announced the tour along with its North American dates on 3 August 2022.[7] It was followed by UK and Ireland tour dates, announced on 1 September 2022.[8]
On 13 February 2023, the group announced a headlining concert at the Finsbury Park, deemed as their "biggest UK headline show ever".[9]
Reception[edit]
The show received unanimous critical acclaim with five star reviews from the Rolling Stone, NME,[27] The Observer,[13] The Telegraph,[28] Evening Standard,[29] and Metro,[30] among others. Rolling Stone declared it as "a defining blueprint on how to do arena shows" and "the most impressive live show" of 2022,[2] with the Evening Standard declaring the 1975 as "the most compelling pop band on the planet".[31]
Clips from the show went viral on TikTok and other social media platforms, prompting wide media coverage of his onstage actions.[32][33][34] In Rolling Stone's review of the performance, the magazine stated that Healy delivered "a subversive and surreal take on modern masculinity [that] when viewed in isolation on social media, that all-importance nuance is entirely absent."[35]
On 21 July 2023, while performing in Malaysia, the organisers of the Good Vibes Festival forced the band to prematurely end their performance under pressure by the authorities after Healy criticised the country's widespread anti-LGBTQ+ laws and kissed fellow bandmate Ross MacDonald. Healy stated that he "made a mistake. When we were booking shows, I wasn't looking into it. [...] So I pulled the show yesterday and we had a conversation, we said 'you know what, we can't let the kids down because they're not the government'".[36][37] Malaysian authorities forced the organisers to immediately halt and cancelled the rest of the three-day festival citing that Healy's "controversial conduct and remarks" are "against the traditions and values of the local culture".[38] Human rights and LGBT activist Peter Tatchell, writing for The Guardian wrote that criticism of Healy and the band "deflect attention from where the criticisms should be most urgently directed: against the homophobia of the Kuala Lumpur regime." He also expressed that Healy is no white saviour for showing solidarity to the community as "queer rights are a universal human right, not a western one".[39] On 23 July 2023, the band announced the cancellation of their concerts in Jakarta and Taipei, citing "current circumstances" that made it "impossible to proceed with the scheduled shows".[40] Accordingly, this made Singapore the only stand-alone Asian stop for Leg 6.[40][a]
Broadcast[edit]
The sold-out show at Madison Square Garden on 7 November 2022 was livestreamed globally on Twitch, presented by Amazon Music.[41] A live recording was released on Amazon Prime Video and premiered on 6 January 2023.[42]
Photos taken on the tour's 14 December 2022 sold out show in Minnesota depicting a partial view of the stage design modified with Christmas lights.