Florence + The Machine, Susquehanna Bank Center, last night 9:14 PM by MEREDITH KLEIBER
When the lights finally went down at the Susquehanna Bank Center on Tuesday night, a lithe silhouette appeared in the middle of the stage behind an illuminated pink screen, and from it emerged the copper-maned siren known as Florence. She moved effortlessly across the stage, her Grecian-goddess dress flowing, her ruby red tresses cascading behind her. Her porcelain skin and full moon eyes gave her an aura of innocence — that is, until she unleashed the first note. The teeming rain and gale-force winds that lashed the arena all through the opening bands were no match for the torrential whirl of sound and light that Florence + The Machine brought to Camden last night. Launching into a vibrant and heavily percussive “Drumming Song,” the band wrapped her vocals in a cinematic wall of sound. The set shifted from the older songs of Lungs to a generous sampling of the newer Ceremonials, culminating in rousing and soulful versions of “No Light” and “What the Water Gave Me” that highlighted the evening. As the clouds flew by overhead like a scene out of Koyaanisqatsi, Flo and Co. outro’d with “Dog Days,” leaving the crowd’s collective ears humming with the haunting echo of a wonderful evening. — MEREDITH KLEIBER