Scott Garfitt / Invision / AP
Matty Healy of The 1975 performs in August in Reading, England. The band appeared in concert Friday at the Theater at Virgin Hotel Las Vegas.
Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022 | 2 a.m.
British pop-rockers The 1975 invited their Las Vegas fans into their living room Friday and made them feel every bit at home.
Well, the band’s stage at the Theater at Virgin Hotel Las Vegas was set up like the interior of a 1960s-style house, complete with a spiral staircase, bookcase-lined den and living room outfitted with period furniture.
The band, featuring boyhood friends Matty Healy, Adam Hann, Ross MacDonald and George Daniel, welcomed the packed house into their “living room vibe” with open arms, making their way through a set of 25 songs.
The 1975 at the Theatre at Virgin Hotel Las Vegas setlist
Being Funny In A Foreign Language
“The 1975 (Being Funny in a Foreign Language)”
“Looking for Somebody (to Love)”
“Happiness”
“Part of the Band”
“Oh Caroline”
“I’m in Love With You”
“All I Need to Hear”
“So Far (It’s Alright)”
“fallingforyou”
“I Like America & America Likes Me”
”About You”
“When We Are Together”
At Their Very Best
“If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)”
“TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME”
“Me & You Together Song”
“It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)”
“Paris”
“An Encounter”
“Robbers”
“Somebody Else”
“Chocolate”
“Love It If We Made It”
“The Sound”
“Sex”
“Give Yourself a Try”
Healy, the band’s lead singer renowned for his onstage antics, made one fan feel especially welcome, pulling her from the audience and inviting her onstage about two-thirds of the way into the concert.
Healy led the fan, who said her name was Isabella, to a sofa onstage where she sat. After shedding his tie and unbuttoning the shirt he was wearing, Healy and the band launched into “Robbers,” from their 2014 self-titled debut studio album. Healy knelt in front of Isabella throughout much of the song, then, both stood as he came to the lyrics “but if you just take off your mask, you find out everything’s gone wrong.” The two locked lips in a passionate kiss that drove many in the crowd into a frenzy. The song, helped along by a screaming crowd, came to its end, and Isabella went back into the audience.
Videos of “the kiss” were plastered all over social media. Was it consensual? Was Isabella of age? Stories about the episode were posted on outlets from TMZ to the New York Post.
A woman identifying herself as Isabella said in a Twitter post afterward that she was “ a grown age of 24” and the kiss, indeed, was consensual. Isabella said she was close to the stage and had held up her phone with a message in large letters that read, “So we making out?” “He saw it and brought me up, HE ASKED before he kissed me!” she confirmed in the tweet.
All of which, of course, was secondary to the music.
Throughout a course of about two hours, the band played a medley of songs in a show that was split into two parts: “Being Funny in a Foreign Language,” with the 1960s-style house set, and “At Their Very Best,” when the interior took on a sleeker, more modern look.
The concert featured nine cuts from The 1975’s newest album, “Being Funny in a Foreign Language,” including crowd favorites “Oh Caroline,” and “I’m in Love with You.” Songs from their earlier albums included the catchy “TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME,” “It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You),” “Chocolate,” and their walk-off, “Give Yourself a Try.”
Throughout it all, Healy was a force. He drank from a flask most of the night, chain-smoked cigarettes, did pushups in front of a bank of television sets. One song he sang lying on his back. Another, he sang from the house’s “rooftop.” He climbed a faux streetlight pole “outside” the house to shut off the lights signaling the concert’s end.
The 4,500 or so packed into the venue — many of them sweating from a night of dancing, screaming and singing along — would no doubt love a return invite to The 1975’s living room.
