Florence + the Machine Draw Larger-Than-Capacity Crowd at Bonnaroo 2011

This happens at Bonnaroo every year: Someone is billed early in the day for one of the festival's intimate tent stages, but the audience overflows its confines to impassable proportions, proving the act deserves more attention. Florence + the Machine was that act this year. The Brit soul-pop group, helmed by frontwoman Florence Welch, took over Bonnaroo's relatively intimate This Tent at sunset on Friday (June 10) for their first appearance at America's grungiest music festival...and good luck trying to get to the front row.

"It's so hot," Welch told the crowd, as security passed out water to the crammed -- and lucky -- front row. Welch herself was cloaked in very unlike festival gab considering the sweltering 95 degree Bonnaroo weather: a black, long-sleeve, see-through silk dress and high heels, which she would kick off later in her set, only to declare "I'm so much shorter now."

July will mark almost two years since Welch released her debut album, 'Lungs.' In that time span, before playing Bonnaroo, the 13-track effort has taken the orange-haired songstress to huge stages, including performances at the MTV Music Video Awards, the Grammys and the U.K.'s equivalent Brit Awards. Bonnaroo's This Tent might have been a step down from her instant mainstream popularity, but it didn't stop Welch from belting out her trademark widow-y croons on songs like 'Between Two Lungs' and 'Dog Days Are Over.'

But, just as ear catching during the Florence + the Machine set was the overflowing crowds roaring response, as if they'd been waiting a lifetime -- let alone two years -- to see Welch live. On 'Cosmic Love' as Welch sang, "I heard your heartbeat," the crowd would freak out and cheer, so she did it again and again, to the same response, building the chorus. During her more popular single, 'You've Got the Love,' the audience sang the opening refrain as Welch escalated, "Who's got the love?" and pointed at the audience when she answered back "You got the love" with her lyrics, until the response was deafening. Things only quieted down for the new tune she played, featuring lyrics "Feel it on me love/see it on me love," which got more spastic on each repetition. It sounds like a secret 14th track off her last, 13-song, album.

Sensing she was fully in command of her crowd, Welch asked fans to participate on the chorus of her dreamy tune 'Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up).' "When I raise my arms, you sing, 'Raise it up!" There wasn't one person that didn't listen.

Watch Florence + the Machine's Video for 'Dog Days Are Over'


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