On the 30th of April, Irish rock band Florence road played in Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam. Excited fans, some of whom have been waiting at the venue since the morning, mention having seen the band open for Wallows, Wolf Alice, or sombr. After garnering many fans as a support act, tonight marks Florence Road’s first headline show in the Netherlands, immediately a sold out one at that.
Opening the night is MOIO, supported by a drummer and guitarist. Even though he admits he is “low key so nervous”, little of this is noticeable in his performance. He easily captures the crowd’s attention with a varied set, mixing acoustic songs and more upbeat performances, hard to be defined by a singular genre. With influences from R&B, indie and alternative, his sound is interesting and perfect to warm everyone up for the evening. He’s comfortable on stage, joking with the crowd, and asking us if we feel special hearing his newest songs (we do.) A particularly beautiful moment happens in the last song of the set: he asks us to sing along to the chorus lines: “hold on to this moment, it won’t last forever”, which perfectly captures the joy of live music, the crowd in unison already for the support act.
Shortly after this, Florence Road takes the stage. The band, consisting of four childhood friends from Ireland, only put out their first EP last year, but already have a lot of show experience under their belt. This fact is noticeable from the very first moment, when they start with the yet to be released song ‘7563’. It is an explosive start to the concert, high energy from the very first moment, with the band so perfectly attuned to each other. Compiled of lead singer and guitarist Lily Aron, guitarist Emma Brandon, bass player and backing vocals Ailbhe Barry and drummer Hannah Kelly, these four together bring all their rock songs to life in a live performance perfectly.
Following with ‘Figure It Out’ and ‘Hand me Downs’ from their first EP, fans excitedly sing along to a performance that is simply impressive. Especially during ‘Hand Me Downs’, the lead vocalist’s vocals are so powerful that some fans on the balcony stand with their mouths wide open from surprise, and rightfully so. The singers vocals blend perfectly with the backing vocals, these backing vocals adding so much extra depth to these rock songs.
This high energy continues throughout the next songs, with little notes to be made as it is just incredibly good, both the crowd and the band enjoying every moment. Midway through playing ‘Heavy’, the drummer moves from the drums to the piano, to play the rest of the song and the next song ‘Rabbits Can Swim’ in a more acoustic style, adding a calmer break in the set for everyone to truly take it in.
After this, the drums are picked back up, with another unreleased song: ‘How Does It Make You Feel’. In this song it just gets emphasised again that the band plays so well together, where every special guitar riff can be perfectly heard, and the slightly echoed backing vocals are nothing short of magic, it all adding up to another song we can’t wait to hear again. The same goes for yet another new song called ‘Surprise Surprise’ with its long sustained vocals leaving the crowd in awe. All these yet to be released songs are so promising for what is ahead for Florence Road.
Announcing their last song of the set, they play ‘Goodnight’, a song everyone in the crowd can sing along to, with everyone from the front row to the back of the balcony moving along, and the band excitedly reacting to some audience members holding up an Irish flag. While a song called ‘Goodnight’ would have been a conveniently greatly named way to end the night, the crowd is very glad it is not really, when the band reappears for their encore.
The encore starts with a stripped-down performance of ‘Caterpillar’, where the lead singer asks “to not sing along too loud, or else I might cry”. Instead, the crowd softly sings along to this emotional song, which is just as moving, showing here that the band doesn’t only play great, they are also strong songwriters, ‘Caterpillar’ being a particularly good example of capturing the experience of anxiety so well.
After trading a guitar pick for a bracelet from a fan, the time has come for the actual last song of the set, the band this time requesting everyone to “sing as loud as humanly possible”, which everyone happily obliged to when they started ‘Break the Girl’. The band ends their set in a sweet way, not facing the crowd, but each other. Four friends in a circle, who have shown this evening both how good they already are, and how much more is ahead.
