By Cassidy Byrnes

British pop/rock band, The 1975 have recently announced that they will be returning to North America after only a year away with their new tour, “Still… at their very best.” The band performed at The Armory in Minneapolis in December of 2022 during their “At their very best,” tour which they will complete in August with a headlining slot at the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco.

Along with performing their fifth studio album, Being Funny In A Foreign Language, the band has also been playing hits such as “Robbers,” “It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You),” and “Somebody Else.”

 During the first two legs of the tour, lead singer, Matty Healy, known for his outlandish behavior on and off stage, completed a performance art piece in the middle of the show. This performance was used as a transition from their Being Funny In A Foreign Language set to the “At their very best” set. The stage design for these legs included a cross section of a house complete with a spiral staircase, a bookshelf, and roughly ten television sets. The first half of the set had Healy seemingly drinking heavily and stumbling around the stage like a heartbroken man singing alone in his house. Then intermission would hit and the rest of the band would exit the stage leaving Healy to himself watching a compilation of news and interview clips displaying right-wing politicians and internet personalities who push ideas of toxic masculinity. During a performance at Madison Square Garden, which can now be streamed on Amazon Prime, the lead singer went as far as to take large bites out of a raw piece of beef. After crawling through one of the television sets and a brief intermission, Healy and the rest of the band would return to the stage with a wardrobe change and a completely different vibe. The second half of the set included the band playing some of their previously mentioned biggest hits. 

Throughout the rest of the tour, the band has slowly abandoned the transitional performance, the house, and Healy’s “a man in crisis” persona. Instead, the band has been doing more traditional sets in order to fit into a headline festival time slot, but with the new tour announcement fans are excited to see what the band has in store next. Along with these changes, venue sizes have been increased significantly, with the smallest venues having a capacity of around 10,000 (for reference – The Armory has a capacity of 8,400.)

My experience at The Armory back in December was one that I will never forget and I look forward to seeing what the band has planned for this new tour. The 1975 will be performing at the Target Center in Minneapolis on Friday, October 26th. You can register for the fan presale that will begin on Wednesday, June 21st at the1975.com and the public sale will follow on Friday. June 23rd, with both starting at 10am local time.