[ATTENDED: February 5, 2025] Slowdive
I was never a big fan of Slowdive back in the 90s, but I have been getting into them a lot more in the last few years. I missed their show in 2023 (it sold out before I’d even heard about it), so I was pretty psyched that they were playing Starland Ballroom on a ten day East Coast tour.
I have mixed feelings about Starland. The line to get in is always insane, but they are super accommodating to anyone with a cane (thanks you guys). I feel like the floor actually slopes away from the stage, so no matter where you are, the people in front of you are always taller. That can’t possibly be true but every time I go there I feel like that.
I had a great spot between two taller people until the guy on my left (the really tall one) moved forward and to the right basically blocking everything. He then used his camera a lot, blocking things even more. Sigh. But Slowdive isn’t really a band for looking at, their more of an experiencing band, with cool lights and visuals behind them while the band are largely in darkness.
The band came out and I was so puzzled by the facial hair! Guitarist/singer Neil Halsted had a big thick mustache (and a baseball hat). Drummer Simon Scott had a mustache that lined the sides of his mouth almost to his chin. And Christian Savill had a scruffy beard. What kind of shoegaze vibe is this? Rachell Goswell looked cool with half of her hair died white. But more importantly, her voice sounded amazing.
Most of their songs are sung by Goswell. Sometimes with Halsted singing harmony. Once in a while Halsted sang lead with Goswell, punctuating with perfect harmonies.
They opened with a new song, Shanty, and the lighting behind them was great with a wall of what looked like sound waves pulsing behind them, all but obscuring the band. I liked the way the lighting would get brighter on whoever was sing and then fade out when they stopped.
When they played the second song, Star Roving, I thought it was a classic shoegaze song, but am surprised to learn that it’s from their first comeback album in 2017. And I guess that’s why I knew it pretty well. I mean, damn, it’s a great song. A perfect melody and great production with terrific vocals.
Bassist Nick Chaplin was right up front (both singers were on either side of him), and he was almost constantly at the edge of the stage. Which was a little odd since both guitarists often turned away from the audience to generate waves of sound. But I absolutely loved Chaplin’s bass sound. It was big and a little fuzzy and, unlike on the record, it was a little louder in the mix so you could really get into it. Also fascinating was how loud and wild the drums were. I’d never think of Slowdive as having wild drums, nut Simon Scott played loud and hard with lots of fills and lots of cymbals. He essentially added another level of constant din to the wave of shoegaze in the room.
I mean, at times the sound was enormous.
The setlist was an interesting mix with only a couple of new songs sprinkled in with some old 90s tunes (like the gorgeous, delicate Catch the Breeze). But the bulk of the set came from the 2017 self titled album and , at the end, five songs from 1993’s Souvlaki.
After the dreamy Souvlaki Space Station, they played two songs from the new album. Chained to a Cloud has more synth than waves of guitar, but it still a lovely song. And when they played Sugar for the Pill, I realized I knew that song quite well, too. So clearly I listened to that 2017 album quite a bit. I didn’t recognize Slomo, but it was really lovely, with the vocals intertwining beautifully.
And then they dove into Souvlaki. When they started When the Sun Hits, the crowd went nuts and it was a sea of phones in front of me. I actually assumed that this crowd would be largely older folks, but it seems that Slowdive has cultivated quite a young crowd, with most of the people there being in their 20s I’d guess. After one more song, they took a brief encore break.
People moved around so I had a good view for the final two songs. The first was the quiet Dagger, a pretty ballad. But we knew they couldn’t end with that and they soon began 40 Days, which seemed to blow the roof off with how loud and long it went.
This was a really great show. And I’m glad I went, even if I couldn’t see all that well for most of it.
- shanty €
- Star Roving ⇓
- Catch the Breeze ⊗
- No Longer Making Time ⇓
- Crazy for You ¶
- Souvlaki Space Station §
- chained to a cloud €
- kisses €
- Sugar for the Pill ⇓
- Slomo ⇓
- Alison §
- When the Sun Hits §
- Machine Gun §
encore
- Dagger §
- 40 Days §
€ everything is alive (2023)
⇓ Slowdive (2017)
¶ Pygmalion (1995)
§ Souvlaki (1993)
⊗ Just for a Day (1991)
∇ Blue Day/Slowdive EP (1992/1990)
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