For their Cardiff performance, shoegaze innovators Slowdive painted a landscape of ambience, textured through the layered vocals and resonant tones carved by their melodies. A considered effort had been made to emphasise the visual elements of this gig, and doe-eyed teenagers rubbed shoulders with 90s zealots as a purple haze of colour heralded the band’s entrance.
Perhaps as a nod to their former collaborations, Deep Blue Day by Brian Eno rang throughout the Great Hall, commencing the night’s festivities. Shanty, the first track from their 2023 album Everything Is Alive, is a well-received opener as the band ease us into what they have to offer.
The audience are clawed into a visual vortex with Catch The Breeze, people swaying in hypnotic trance as the song spins into its crescendo. The cosmos of noise is intensified through relentless strobing lights, soon replaced by calmer track Skin In The Game. Rachel Goswell is a beacon of effervescence among her more stoic stage companions, a calming figure to anchor your sights to among the audible chaos. “I grew up not far from here, I’m actually a little bit Welsh,” she states; another reason to trust her.
Souvlaki Space Station is a transcendent, awe-inspiring triumph, its melody lapping like pillowing waves over the audience. How the band have managed to make their recorded music translate so tastefully is of great achievement: the Slowdive live experience is visceral and raw, feeling natural and effortless despite the amount of determination it must have taken to get to this level.
Contemporary tracks like Chained To A Cloud blend seamlessly with beloved heyday songs Alison and 40 Days. The only critique conceivable is that When The Sun Hits was only viewable through the intrusive silver screens of several hundred teenagers (the band played this track slightly faster than usual, perhaps to accommodate the TikTok attention spans that now help to sell out their shows). Dagger was beautiful and evocative, followed by an expansive and haunting rendition of Syd Barrett’s Golden Hair.
Shoegaze, which in its early era went by an alternate name – ‘the scene that celebrates itself’ – tonight had that association totally disproven. Testament to the legacy Slowdive have created, a vast array of ages and creeds have gathered for this show. It is not often that a band with their history – dropped from their label, broken up, reuniting nearly 20 years later and releasing new albums – have remained so relevant, and exceeded whatever was expected from them.
Slowdive, Great Hall, Cardiff University Students Union, Mon 26 Feb
words TERESA DELFINO photos HOLLY BRADLEY
