It commenced in September 2023 with a North American leg across arenas in the United States and Canada, marking their biggest tour yet in the region.[4][5][6] In 2024, the band staged the world's first ever "carbon-removed" events across their four shows at the O2 Arena in London.[7]
Background
In May 2023, during the band's headlining show at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend in Scotland, frontman Matty Healy was noted to wear a lab coat with a "Matty" name tag which was a departure from his At Their Very Best tour wardrobe.[8] By June, the band's social media accounts posted promotional materials about a new concert tour including a poster of Healy kneeling on a patch of grass wearing a lab coat.[9][3]
The fourth episode of the band's A Theatrical Performance of an Intimate Moment short film webseries shows Healy in a laboratory discarding a lab coat with the name tag "Truman Black",[10] a known alias of Healy's, and choosing to wear the lab coat with the name tag "Matty".[11] On 23 September, Healy posted a political campaign-type of video centering on redemption to promote the tour.[12]
World's first "carbon-removed" events
The band's four shows at the O2 Arena in London in 2024 marked the world's first-ever carbon-removed events.[7] This involves CO2 generated by the events – from the light show to the audience – being physically sucked out of the air, as well as more traditional techniques such as planting trees and spreading CO2 absorbing volcanic rock on farmland, where it also acts as a fertiliser.[13]
Concert synopsis
The show, written and directed by Healy, is an expansion of the band's previous tour, reusing the same house-like set design by Tobias Rylander and following a similar premise and two-part structure.[14] Additions to the show include a large LED screen behind the house set that displays concert visuals, as well as a second, smaller stage at the center of the concert venue, which resembles a square patch of grass. After crawling through a television screen on the main stage during the "Consumption" interlude, Healy emerges on the B-stage for the show's middle act (titled "Matty's Nightmare"), where he caresses and lays next to a naked wax replica of himself. The replica is then lowered beneath the stage and replaced with a guitar and microphone for Healy to perform an acoustic rendition of the track "Be My Mistake" from the band's third album, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships. Healy returns to the main stage afterwards to perform the rest of the set, but reemerges on the B-stage during the encore to perform "People", and is sometimes joined by other members of the band.[15][16]
Some shows contain a second interlude titled "Social Media Pandering Parody", where Healy projects trending news clips onto the screens while reading satirical commentary on current events from a cellphone to the audience.[17] At the October 29, 2023 show in Chicago, Healy ate a prop cellphone onstage as part of the parody segment.[16] Meanwhile, at the October 10, 2023 in Fort Worth, Texas, Healy delivered an impassioned 10-minute speech defending the band's pro-LGBT demonstration during their performance at the 2023 Good Vibes Festival in Malaysia, where they were subsequently banned from performing. Healy particularly criticized the "liberal outrage" against the band after the incident, which he perceived as hypocritical in light of Malaysia's widespread anti-LGBT laws, and further refuted accusations against the band of "cultural insensitivity" and "colonialism", stating, "[liberals'] unconditional belief in inclusivity and tolerance has led them to indirectly support a government which is intolerant of their own existence."[18]
Tour dates
List of 2023 concerts, showing date, city, country, venue, and opening act[19][3]
