WASHINGTON – Midway through her liberating anthem “Dog Days Are Over,” Florence Welch addressed her flock.
“I want you to experience the song,” she said, before mimicking how concertgoers watch through a phone lens to capture the perfect photo or video. “I don’t care about your shot right now. I care about your experience.”
The direction – which was visibly obeyed – is nothing new for repeat attendees of Welch’s shows, who have endured the agony of a phone-free hand for two minutes. Instead, they blissfully bounced to Welch’s biggest commercial hit, excavating the emotions they’d absorbed for the past two hours.
Welch’s desire for a shared experience came during the encore of the D.C. stop of Florence + The Machine’s Everybody Scream tour on Saturday, April 18. But really, Welch’s entire show was about a communal encounter – whether rooted in pain, anger, joy or freedom – with the sold-out crowd of 14,000 at Capital One Arena.
From the moment she rose from beneath the stage floor, barefoot and with hands gracefully fluttering for the opening “Everybody Scream,” the catharsis that would occur during the next two hours was apparent.
