ACX 2010 Florence and the Machine Brings Visionary Magic To KROQ Stage

Come to the magical, mystical winter wonderland that is Florence and the Machine at 21st Annual KROQ Acoustic Christmas. The British indie-rock pixie and lyrical dreamweaver took the main-stage, slinking on the stage wearing a white chiffon dress and moving with an ethereal grace and a sublime air of visceral power.
Florence Welch is a woman of her word; she fuses her theatrical, intoxicating lyrics with her life story seamlessly. When you watch Welch, you are swept up in her personal struggles and her profoundly meaningful triumphs.

Florence and the Machine’s critically acclaimed 2009 album, Lungs, is one of our favorite records to date. Florence Welch’s songwriting style lends well to the feminine psyche; she perceives womanly longing, heartbreak, and tongue-in-cheek whimsy with fresh–and ofttimes experimental–insight.

Welch looked like a Christmas angel on top of the tree and one of our other writers stated, “I think she deserves to be on top of the tree.” She is definitely one of the most powerful female vocalists in existence–if not the best female vocalist of our time.

Welch sang “Cosmic Love,” conducting the air sprites with her drumstick; she leaned back with her eyes closed, almost offering her soul to the goddesses. She pounded on her drum while she sang “Girl With One Eye,” enticing the crowd into an orgiastic chant. Accompanying Welch was her “machine,” including a keyboardist dressed in a black velvet gown and a gorgeous golden harp.

Ending her set with her hit single “Dog Days Are Over,” Welch belted operatically, showing off her undoubted vocal prowess. Stepping out of her angelic trance, she grinned and led the the KROQ audience into special Christmas dance. As she bounced up, her diaphanous white dress flew up in the wind around her.
And for a moment, we almost thought Florence Welch could fly.

Nadia Noir, KROQ

Florence at Leeds Review

orence And The Machine and Friendly Fires brought a carnival atmosphere to the Leeds Festival today (August 30) as they both played sets on the NME/Radio 1 Stage.

Barclaycard Mercury Prize-nominated singer Florence Welch, who celebrated her birthday at Reading Festival on Friday (August 28), carried on the party at Bramham Park when a fan in the crowd handed her a card.

"Is that a card you're handing me there?" she asked before single 'Kiss With A Fist'. "Thank you so much."

Welch, who performed with a taped-up hand, revealed to the crowd that she had had an accident at Reading.

"By the way, this isn't a fashion cuff," she said. "I really fucked my hand up at Reading, my hand was pissing blood all the way from my dressing room on my birthday."

She then kicked off a call-and-response as she got both sides of the crowd to howl, fittingly, before 'Howl'.

Later, the stage crew had to hand her drummer an anorak after rain started to pour into the tent. "I've just had a shower of rain fall on me, this is so cool," she giggled. "Our drummer needs an umbrella."

She went on to perform single 'Dog Days Are Over', while the crowd sang every word to her cover of Candi Staton's 'You Got The Love.

She was about to perform 'Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)' before she ran out of time, forcing her to apologise to her fans.

Later, fellow Barclaycard Mercury Prize nominees Friendly Fires reeled off tracks from their self-titled debut in the same tent, including 'Jump In The Pool', 'Paris' and 'Skeleton Boy'.

The St Albans band also performed their forthcoming single 'Kiss Of Life' during their lively set.

NME.COM will be coming live from both the Reading And Leeds Festivals sites this weekend (August 28-30). Stay tuned to NME.COM/festivals for news reports, blogs, video interviews and photos from the event.

Get next Wednesday's (September 2) issue of NME for the ultimate Reading And Leeds Festivals review.

Plus have your say on this summer - fill in the annual NME Festival survey now to cast your verdict on 2009, and tell festival chiefs who you want to see next year.

Way Out West Review

I am only going to post the F+TM bit, but if you would like to see the full review click here.



Best legs of the festival go to Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine. Walking on stage in black high-heels and gold sequined hot pants, attention was torn between her fiery locks and siren song and that bedazzling hip shake. In what was already a festival with some serious female domination, Florence commanded the stage and was a forceful presence — if only this could be said for her music, which at times reached for lofty Kate Bush-like heights like on “Rabbit Heart” and the White Stripes one-two punch of debut single “Kiss With a Fist” and its rampaging follow-up “Dog Days Are Over”, but the rest of the material taken from her album Lungs failed to address the same urgency or attraction, but then again, she could’ve been singing the phonebook and that would’ve been alright with me.