Having ticked off over one hundred and fifty gigs since their current album tour cycle began in 2023, Slowdive treated a sold out Brixton Academy to what may have been the best one yet for Gig No.156 with RESOUND duly in attendance.
It’s 4pm and loitering by the stage door is a slight young figure anxiously peering at anyone passing, searching for a recognizable face he knows but has never met. Elia has travelled from Switzerland and in the preceding two hours has had the fortune of four members of Slowdive signing his clutched copy of Just For A Day, the band’s debut album which was released well before he was born. But the fifth band member has eluded him and with the noise of soundcheck now emitting through an open door, he fears he has missed his chance.
But how on earth is a band that briefly garnered the fickle praise of the early ‘90s music media before being condemned to apparent oblivion as the tsunami of Britpop overtook them as they broke up in 1994 attracting such devotion over thirty years later? Long before the door opens, a snake of a queue is winding around the venue to the possible bemusement of the nearby skateboarders. The middle-aged audiences that welcomed their initial return in 2014 are now equaled if not outnumbered by their younger counterparts (something that is balanced by the bands’ musical peers with members of Ride and My Bloody Valentine in attendance alongside assorted representatives of the younger Whitelands, Big Special, and Victories at Sea). At its heart, the simple explanation is the music, songs written by teenagers (the band were all around 18 when signed to Creation Records) resonating to the teenagers of 2025, amplified by the power of TikTok, where When the Sun Hits from 1993’s second album Souvlaki has acquired near mythical viral status. Combine that with the musical progression and rich seam of creativity offered in turn with comeback album Slowdive in 2017 and 2023’s chart bothering everything is alive and the selling out of the iconic 5000 capacity venue starts to make sense. In a world of endless doom-scrolling and bad news, the Lazarus-esque second coming of Slowdive is a welcome ray of light.
Two stints opening for Slowdive in their native USA see duo Drab Majesty entrusted with a further support role for this short European leg. Their distinctive look—matching black suits, sunglasses, silver face makeup and bleached blonde wigs—provide a strong presence as they launch into ‘Dot in the Sky’ from their 2017 album The Demonstration. It’s uncertain if the packed venue registers the subject matter of mass cult suicide being dealt with, but it’s the perfect introduction to the post-Gothgaze sound of vocalist/guitarist Deb Demure and vocalist/keyboardist Mona D. For a two piece, the sound is massive with the band weaving their intoxicating eight song set into the souls and minds of all present. Closing with ‘The Skin and the Glove’ from their most recent release An Object in Motion, it’s a welcome and tantalising appetiser for what is to follow.
As the lights drop and the familiar notes of Brian Eno’s ‘Deep Blue Day’ ring out, it’s fair to say the expectant atmosphere is electric. Whilst many of the dates on this tour have seen everything is alive album opener ‘shanty’ open the set, tonight they head right back to the start with fan favourite ‘Avalyn’ from 1990’s debut self-titled EP. The rolling bass and percussion combine with the layers of guitars and vocals to send shivers down the spine. It’s a song that is often said to be where Slowdive found their sound and even after all this time, it is a thing of beauty. Any fears that ‘shanty’ had been dropped are allayed when the by now familiar intro rings out amidst the swathes of light and projections that fill the room; a Slowdive gig is a full immersion of the senses both socially and visually, transporting those present to a whole new space. It’s clear that two years on the road have taken the band to a whole new level, more than one gig-goer being overheard opining that it is the best they have sounded. Guitarists Neil Halstead and Christian Savill take stages left and right casting their magic over the bass of the Gallup-esque Nick Chaplin and Simon Scott’s fluid drums, whilst the vocals of Halstead and co-vocalist Rachel Goswell—embracing her role as Ethereal Gazemother dispensing beatific smiles to any audience member fortunate to catch her eye—spin through the layers of sound.
Whilst the songs played have deviated little across the tour cycle, the setlist curation has evolved to give perfect ebbs and flows; new tracks such as ‘kisses‘ and ‘chained to a cloud‘ have been fine tuned over this tour cycle to sit seamlessly alongside older cuts such as ‘Alison‘ and ‘Catch the Breeze‘. By the time they reach ‘When the Sun Hits’ to close the main set, it has been one of perfection. A three set encore, all taken from Souvlaki, sates the packed room’s appetite for more before a beaming band waves farewell and leaves the stage to rapturous applause.
Time has passed and it is doubtful that Slowdive care much or spare any thought for those journalists that derided them in the 1990s. But as anyone who has seen the Pitchfork documentary on the band will know, the memory of a London gig in 1993 played to a half full room of 300 whilst a cleaner mopped the floor at the back certainly stuck in their minds. One can’t help but hope they looked out at the thousands of ecstatic faces staring back in another London venue thirty two years later and finally wiped away that jarring memory once and for all.
And finally, what about Elia? Not only did he get that final signature from Christian, but having travelled without a ticket on the off chance of getting into the sold-out gig, he tracked one down and got to see his favourite band for the first time. He certainly chose a good’un.
Words and pictures: Geoff Shaw
@gsmusicphotos
(Thanks to Danielle Hennes of Big Sonic Heaven Radio for the loan of ‘Ethereal Gazemother’)