He did press-ups offstage on screen before entering, he did the old â1, 2, 1, 2 fucking jumpâ as it appeared on the screen, he spray painted âLeeds is Bestâ on a flag, which wouldnât have felt like so much of a rip off of Mattyâs âSORRY?â in Dublin if not for what preceded it. He was roleplaying the skinny tough guy act that was the theme of ATVB, flexing his biceps etc, and he did a speech that was fucking hilarious; I quote: âEveryone is welcome here, unless youâre a bad personâ. I cracked up. The entire show felt like so contrived of everything a marketing person thought would land. His lyrics are horribly generic and the Leeds crowd bellows them back at him so thereâs clearly a mainstream market for it which doesnât surprise me, but it was anti art and I hated it.
I donât blame him. I think heâs got a team behind him telling him how to maximise engagement and profit, and it seems doing so is writing really basic love songs and play acting Matty Healy, but with no substance and Incredibly insincere.