Florence And The Machine Drumming

After only getting to catch a few songs from their set at Bonnaroo, I was granted the pleasure of seeing Florence Welch grace the stage at the Aragon Theater in Chicago than a week later.

Packed into the front row were scores of adoring flower haired girls sporting roses. As the anticipation grew, the crowd began chanting "Florence! Florence! Florence!" and when the energy hit a fever pitch, a black sheet obscuring the stage dropped to reveal Florence's towering fiery haired presence -- and it was like I was back in that sweaty tent in Tennessee all over again.

Floating barefoot back and forth across the stage, Welch seemed to teleport from side to side, bellowing at the cosmic night sky painted on the storied theater's ceiling. Teasing the audience with Lady Gaga's "Judas" before tearing into "Blinding," and pounding away through "Drumming Song," Welch delivered a deep set that had the crowd enamored from the first beat.

On their first complete U.S. tour, Florence + The Machine are currently piecing together their follow-up to 2009's Lungs, and the Aragon audience was even treated to a peak at a few new powerful songs before Welch ended the evening with the obligatory but beautiful "Dog Days Are Over" before vanishing from the stage.

Florence + The Machine's tour grinds through the East Coast with supporting dates for U2, before landing at Summerfest in Milwaukee on July 6, playing a special headlining show along with The Black Keys and Cage The Elephant.

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