Slowdive - Gig Review 19th July @ The Princess Theatre, Bris QLD
SlowdiveThe Princess Theatre, Brisbane, QLDJuly 19th, 2023Support: Lucy Francesca Dron
Hitting Australian shores for only the second time in their careers, Brisbane fans of pioneering British shoegaze/dream pop act Slowdive are treated tonight with the band’s very first headlining show in our fair city. With a bonafide genre-classic under their belts (1993’s Souvlaki, if you’re new here), the five piece have spent the past near-decade since their 2014 reformation undertaking the occasional UK/European/USA tour and/or festival appearance, as well as dropping their excellent 2017 self-titled LP. As the veteran’s ready another new Slowdive record for its September release, this debut headlining Australian tour is a celebration of the indie/alt legends' entire career.
With tonight’s performance at The Princess Theatre long sold out, a massive line snakes its way through the streets of Woolloongabba. Fortunately local opener, the talented Lucy Francesca Dron, gets their set slightly pushed back to accommodate the gradually filling venue. Dron and her band are a fantastic choice of support, with the combination of angular chords, driving drums, Dron’s soulful vocals and some jammed-out experimental sections garnering a very warm response from the nearly filled house. Their sound gets a tad messy towards the tail end of their brief set, but the quartet bring every song to a strong crescendo, injecting dynamic changes throughout. Lucy Francesca Dron is certainly an act to keep more than one eye out for - surely big things to come from Dron and company.
Cooly taking to the stage, Slowdive receives a hero's welcome from the Brisbane crowd. The opening duo of ‘Slomo’ and their early 90’s self-titled track is the perfect balance of old and new, while ‘Catch the Breeze’ beautifully highlights their ‘wall of sound’ style, becoming almost a sensory overload with strobe lighting and whirling guitars competing for the focal point. The high ceilings of The Princess Theater is perfect for the soaring, delay-soaked guitar, soft vocals and dense soundscapes that are synonymous with the Reading group’s sound.
Unsurprisingly it’s the material from the iconic Souvlaki that garners the biggest reaction - the back-to-back mid-set whammy of ‘Alison’ and ‘When the Sun Hits’ takes the crowd to dream pop nirvana, and highlights how timeless their output is. Cuts from the most recent eponymous 2017 effort slot in perfectly with their early 90s work, especially the more up-tempo ‘Star Roving’, as to ‘kisses’, the first single from the aforementioned, forthcoming new album Everything Is Alive. Main guitarists Neil Halstead and Christian Savill's instruments are always saturated in effects, their combined playing fluidly moving between roaring freight trains of noise, to chiming delicate restraint.
The sound inside The Princess Theatre seems to actually get a little cluttered and louder as the show progresses, though it does work with the whole shoegaze-chic - there are some moments of sheer overwhelming noise that would surely have anyone not wearing earplugs regretting their lack of hearing protection. The best example being the main set-closing cover of Syd Barrett’s ‘Golden Hair’, which moves from its almost monk-like intro chant into what can only be described as sounding like a spaceship taking off.
The rambunctious Wednesday crowd receives little between song banter from the group, but the band’s enthusiasm is obvious, with frontwoman Rachel Goswell beaming throughout. Even the backing video screen croaking halfway through their set is nowhere enough to derail their excellent showing, with the two-tune encore of more Souvlaki material sending the crowd home happy (even if they demand for more as the house lights go up). ‘Blue Skied an' Clear’ gets cut last minute, instead the stripped-back ‘Dagger’, highlighting the perfect vocal collusion between Goswell and Halstead, and the fantastic ’40 Days’ closes out Slowdive’s debut Brisbane headliner.
Slowdive have delivered 90 minutes of shoegaze euphoria here in The Princess Theater tonight. A couple of small technical issues and the (at times) ear-splitting volume are mere footnotes on the excellent performance delivered by Slowdive. A classic artist firing on all cylinders with an extremely passionate crowd fully behind them; it’s gigs like these that makes live music great.
Gig Review by Andrew Kapper
Setlist
Slomo
Slowdive
Avalyn
Catch the Breeze
Star Roving
Souvlaki Space Station
Crazy for You
Sugar for the Pill
Alison
When The Sun Hits
Sleep
kisses
Golden Hair
Dagger
40 Days
Slowdive - Aussie Tour 2023
