The 1975, a surprisingly modern band with a name that suggests a blast from the past, this band put out their debut self-titled album The 1975, in late 2013, and have been touring ever since. In January of 2015, they took a break from nearly two years of continuous touring, to start work on their new album; I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it, (a mouthful of a title). Then in June they announced their new tour, which would debut their new songs from their upcoming album (to be released Feb. 26 2016).

The 1975, were scheduled to perform on Dec. 5 at the new Fillmore in Philadelphia, a standing room only venue with a 2500 capacity.

Which meant to get tickets would be a crunch. I, was one of the lucky 2500 to get one, along with my best friend, the two of us had been waiting over a year to see the band live, and the excitement of getting tickets was insurmountable.

December 5^th came fast from June and I was there, standing outside in the freezing streets of the city, waiting anxiously with strangers who were playing odd games to keep themselves busy. After hours in the freezing cold, people poured into the venue brimming with excitement that was too strong for words.  The opening act, Swim Deep came and went quickly, and by 9PM the lights had dropped, and the screams of joy began.

Matty Healy, lead singer, and infamous drama queen performed wonderfully, playing his guitar and singing lyrics that the crowd chanted back and others it had never heard before. The lighting and staging was fantastic, with massive rectangle blocks in the background and large white ones hung from the ceiling, matching their well known fluorescent light box album art. Due to their heavy influence with synthetic sound and keyboards the live production was almost exact to that of the studio versions.

The Fillmore, a tiny venue, allowed for a very intimate connection with the crowd, felt as though I had met the band by just seeing them on the stage so close to me. Healy, was quite the performer, encouraging everyone to sing along and dance, as he was doing on the stage. For two of their more emotional songs ‘Me’ and ‘Fallingforyou’ Healy requested that everyone put their phones away and stop taking pictures and videos. It was a beautiful ten minutes of sheer lack of technology and pure connection between the two thousand people, and the band. This was all part of the experience of the live show that you can’t get through your headphones, or the speaker of your car.

The mix of the lights, the performance and the personal closeness was something unforgettable, and something everyone, especially fans of the band should be able to see in their lifetime.