Matty Healy can't resist trolling at the 1975's sold-out Milwaukee concert at Fiserv Forum

Should people support art from problematic artists?

It's been a recurring question in recent years, and the 1975 frontman Matty Healy has become a focal point of the debate.

A provocateur since the pop-rock band's first album a decade ago, Healy — whose profile grew after he allegedly dated Taylor Swift briefly this spring — has caused more controversy than ever this year.

There was his appearance on "The Adam Friedland Show," when the podcast hosts made disparaging comments about Ice Spice's body and ethnicity, alongside Healy's own controversial comments. There have been others, including an alleged Nazi salute at a concert; a same-sex kiss stunt at a Malaysian festival slammed by some of the nation's LGBTQ activists; and his appalling use of an ableist slur for a joke on X (formerly Twitter).

Whether people should support Healy is one thing; clearly, a lot of people are supporting him.

The 1975 drew a sold-out crowd at Fiserv Forum Saturday for the band's first arena concert in Milwaukee, part of the 1975's "Still At Their Very Best" tour. (The band traditionally has played the Rave in town, for up to 3,500 people at the Eagles Ballroom; Healy gave the venue a shout-out Saturday.)

About 90 minutes into Saturday’s two-hour set, Healy addressed the elephant in the room.

“You need to take an inventory of yourself so you become aware when your actions and your intentions don’t align,” Healy said. “My actions hurt some people. I apologized to those people and I said that I would do better moving forward." (Ice Spice recently said in an interview with Variety that Healy did apologize to her.)

"There’s nothing wrong with wanting to better yourself," Healy said toward the end of a three-minute talk. Moments later, mimicking a bit he’s done at other shows this fall, Healy read a faux promotional script for BetterHelp from a cue card while looking into a stage camera, offering a discount with the code “Sorry75,” and making the money gesture with his fingers.

That bit undermined the sincerity of the apology, suggesting Healy was yet another frustrating case of a man with power and a platform determined to not take accountability for hurting others. Read another way, he seemed to be inviting the audience to question: When a celebrity apologizes, how sincere are they really?

Among the most meta of music stars, there were a few other gestures like that one that spoke to what Healy said was the theme for the show: "the way celebrities interact with one another and with people."

One of those was also distasteful and ultimately ineffective: the juxtaposition of horrific news footage of war, terrorism and other atrocities with sepia-toned silhouettes of dancers on the stage's big screen for "Love It If We Made It." I read it as a critique of artists' glib, tone-deaf depiction of real-life tragedy to make a statement — while in itself being a glib, tone-deaf depiction of real-life tragedy to make a statement.

But there were other amusing, thought-provoking satirical statements that were less off-putting, including a flowery political campaign style-video that had Healy nobly wearing a hard hat and a suit between footage of waving American flags, a laughing veteran, and a farmer walking through a sun-kissed field.

And, at one point, what appeared to be Healy's naked body lying in the fetal position appeared on the faux-grass-covered B-stage, as a recording of Edvard Grieg's "Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16" echoed through the arena. The real-life (and clothed) Healy made his way up to the stage to poke fun at the pretention, curling up next to himself and suggesting he was better endowed than his dummy doppelganger.

Yet in spite of all of this — and it was a lot — there were far fewer smug, self-involved gestures from Healy than at the 1975's last Milwaukee concert at the Eagles Ballroom last December. The music did remain the focal point, with the setlist spanning 24 songs, and the band, doubled from the core four, sounded fantastic.

The staging was exceptional, too, with most of the action set inside a handsome, '80s-style sitcom house set, complete with working ceiling fan, and smartly staged lighting inside and around the set. (A version of this appeared at the Eagles Ballroom in December, but space restrictions prevented the complete rendering.)

For instance, when sax player John Waugh busted out a rich solo for "Happiness," a blast of blue light piercing through window blinds behind him enhanced the moment. And the tour debut of "I Like America & America Likes Me" was accompanied by a vibrant visual: Healy standing on the roof of the house, singing through emotionally heightened Auto-Tune about being afraid of dying, pleading for someone to listen, as a spotlight behind him resembled a full moon.

For that song and many others Saturday, especially for the first half, Healy's on-stage persona was one of wounded detachment, a cheesy fake smile he flashed during "Part of the Band" making his "pain" abundantly clear.

But Healy became more emotionally resonant as the night progressed, especially at the midpoint at the B-stage for a solo acoustic performance of "Be My Mistake," and on that same stage at the very end for a rousing, raw rendition of the equally earnest and ironic protest anthem "People."

And Healy offered a special gift to one fan in particular, Lindsey, who said she had been to 30 shows. Asking her if there was a song she most wanted to hear, she suggested a rarity from early in the band's career, "So Far (It's Alright)," and Healy and the band obliged, with the frontman pulling a book with the lyrics to make sure he gave the unplanned performance his all.

"I rather enjoyed that," Healy said when the song ended — and at that moment, if perhaps only that moment, there was no dispute about his sincerity.

7 takeaways from the 1975's Milwaukee concert, including opener Dora Jar

• Saturday’s show paid tribute to “Friends” star Matthew Perry, whose death was reported shortly before the concert began, by blasting the theme song from the sitcom classic, the Rembrandts’ “I’ll Be There for You,” right before the band took the stage. (A snippet of the song also appeared in a live, show-opening piano medley.)

• Folks in the very front of the general-admission floor section had camped out for several hours, if not days, for their spots Saturday. As WISN-TV (Ch. 12) reported, fans started camping outside the arena Thursday afternoon to begin receiving numbered wristbands that were issued at 9 a.m. Saturday for entry.

• Several concertgoers got in the Halloween spirit early Saturday. Among the costumes I spotted: Mario and Luigi, a vampire and her victim, a strawberry, a fairy, an astronaut, a midriff-baring Dorothy and a few women dressed like Healy. It’ll be interesting to see what costumes people sport at Fiserv Forum when it’s actually Halloween night Tuesday for Shania Twain’s show.

• Seemingly the most popular merch item, carried by dozens of fans out of Fiserv Forum after the show Saturday: a tote bag that read “The 1975” on one side and “Not a Fan” on the other.

• Among the “household items” I spotted on the show’s living room-like set: a globe, a full chess board, weights, I believe 10 (often flickering) lamps, around six old (working) television sets, a plastic “E.T.” cup, wax figurines of Mickey Mouse and Pluto; and a copy of David Foster Wallace’s “Infinite Jest” sticking out on a bookshelf.

• The band reserved fan favorite “Give Yourself a Try” for one of its big final numbers Saturday, but I’ll admit I was really distracted by a frustrated security guard in the pit, stage left, trying to flag other staffers on the other side with a flashlight. I’m not sure what was going on, but it got pretty intense, with the guard marching through the pit to the other side and angrily chucking the flashlight toward a staffer.

• Dora Jar took a big risk Saturday night, closing out her opening set with an unreleased song, “Puppet.” But the emerging pop-rock artist made sure it was unforgettable. Jerking her arms and legs backwards as she danced, like a marionette being jerked around by its strings, the singer named Dora Jarkowski recalled Hayley Williams’ ceaseless energy, climbing on her guitarist's back at one point and collapsing with him on the ground. At one crucial moment, she resembled Williams’ vocal firepower, too. Bonus points for the drummer wearing a Ray Allen Bucks jersey — not that the band needed any bonus points.

The 1975's Fiserv Forum setlist in Milwaukee

1. "The 1975" (song from "Being Funny in a Foreign Language")

2. "Looking for Somebody (To Love)"

3. "Happiness"

4. "Part of the Band"

5. "Oh Caroline"

6. "I'm in Love With You"

7. "A Change of Heart"

8. "Robbers"

9. "I Like America & America Likes Me"

10. "You"

11. "About You"

12. "Be My Mistake"

13. "Paris"

14. "TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME"

15. "If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)"

16. "UGH!"

17. "It's Not Living (If It's Not With You)"

18. "The Sound"

19. "Somebody Else"

20. "So Far (It's Alright)"

21. "Love It If We Made It"

22. "Sex"

23. "Give Yourself a Try"

24. "People"

Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on X at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Matty Healy can't resist trolling at the 1975's concert in Milwaukee