Gig review: Florence and the Machine, Glasgow SECC

WHEN a young artist leaves smaller and more atmospheric venues behind to tread the planks of an iron aerodrome like the SECC, the feeling of lost innocence is often palpable.

But Florence Welch’s brilliant, otherworldly sense of epic drama seems to expand and fill the hall around her.

Emerging from her arched, strobe-lit Art Deco backdrop in a brown sequinned cape, Welch appeared as extraterrestrial as a member of Sun Ra’s Arkestra or George Clinton’s Parliament, an unsmiling zephyr with an ungodly beautiful voice and the winning eccentricity of Kate Bush recast as a post-house diva. Her vocals fluttered against the dense metronome pound of drums during Only if For a Night and What the Water Gave Me, a solo turn under the spotlight during Cosmic Love reaffirming her raw vocal ability and an imaginary toast to Between Two Lungs’ “we are all too young to die” line emphasising a skill for striking sloganeering.

Midway through, the tempo changed, and Welch’s fantasy tableau was replaced by a certain earthy humanity, even as the pop hits emerged and the cape came off. “If anyone had a heavy weekend, this is for you,” she murmured from amidst a sharp red light before the anthemic Shake It Out, smiling at last and adding her own name to the hungover roll call with a sheepishly raised hand before Dog Days Are Over. In its latter stages it was a show that raised its game by degrees, from the insistent Leave Your Body to her seminal cover of house classic You Got the Love and the house beat of Spectrum, all emphasising the control she’s attained of her sound and style.

Rating: *****