Live Music: The 1975 - 3Arena, Dublin

4/5

It’s just a few years since The 1975 struggled to sell out Dublin’s pokey Academy 2 venue. They returned to play to 12,000 or so screaming fans, delivering a performance that underscored their status as the rising force in British rock.

The band’s success is, at one level, no surprise. Skinny, and with artfully mussed hair, Matthew Healy is an old-school frontman — a hip-swivelling mash-up of INXS’s Michael Hutchence and Razorlight’s John Borrell. He soaked up the attention on the final night of the group’s biggest-ever tour, a focal point around which swirled music that was sometimes strange, but always compelling.

Their name may reference the decade of Ford Capris and iffy moustaches, but it is the 1980s that has most meaningfully influenced the Cheshire outfit. The ghost of Duran Duran clanked its chains during ‘She’s American’ and ‘A Change of Heart’, while the saxophone splashes adorning ‘Anobrain’ and ‘Menswear’ winked prominently towards David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ phase.

Healy is one of those preening showboaters who’d rather be disliked than ignored. He cut a gobby figure throughout the near two-hour concert, explaining that he’d been up all night filming the band’s latest video, and extolling the crowd to put away their phones, so that musicians and punters could share a “real” moment.

Once, such patter might have been considered standard issue. However, this is the era of the self-effacing rock star and Healy’s swagger was a refreshing departure from the self-aware mumblings of Chris Martin, Ed Sheeran, et al.

The bulk of the set was drawn from The 1975’s experimental second album, I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful, Yet So Unaware Of It. That was a canny decision, as the project marks a seismic forward leap from their poppier, 2013 debut. But as synths wailed and guitars droned, Healy’s laid-back vitality served as a vital bridge between band and audience. It was a reminder that, even in our postmodern, irony-steeped age, showmanship trumps all.