Slowdive deliver cathartic release at Palace Theatre
by Joel Swenson and Nikhil Kumaran
October 05, 2023
If you were in downtown St. Paul Wednesday night and felt an earth-moving rumble, don’t worry. It wasn’t a major weather event or Twins fans celebrating across the river. No, it was British shoegaze pioneers Slowdive building a wall of sound during a captivating performance at the sold-out Palace Theatre.
Slowdive are Neil Halstead (vocals, guitar, keys), Rachel Goswell (vocals, guitar, keyboards, tambourine), Nick Chaplin (bass), Christian Savill (guitar), and Simon Scott (drums). Wednesday night’s show was only the fourth time they’ve graced the Twin Cities with their loud, somber presence. The first was during their initial run as a band in 1992. The band broke up in 1995 but reformed in 2014 to embark on a world tour that included a stop at the Fine Line. It has been six years since their 2017 Palace Theatre show, time they spent writing and recording their latest album, everything is alive, released earlier this year.
Joining Slowdive at the Palace were darkwave darlings Drab Majesty. Offstage, the Los Angeles-based duo comprise Andrew Clinco and Alex Nicolaou. Onstage, they transform into their androgynous extraterrestrial alter-egos, Deb Demure and Mona D, respectively. The pair perform synth-driven and reverb-drenched “tragic wave” while donning shimmering silver makeup, stark white wigs, and a revolving wardrobe of costumes. For Wednesday night’s show, they chose simple black suits and sunglasses.
Drab Majesty’s hypnotic, commanding sound and pageantry were enough to pack the Palace early in the night. It’s not uncommon for openers to be sparsely attended, but that was definitely not the case. Their brief 30-minute set drew from their last three releases, with the bulk coming from 2017’s The Demonstration.
From the jangly guitar and spacey synth lines of the set’s opener, “Dot in the Sky,” to the shoegaze-inspired closer, “The Skin and the Glove,” they filled the Palace with lush dreamscape and mesmerizing presence. For “Vanity,” they welcomed Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell to the stage to lend her hauntingly beautiful vocals to the song’s many dark layers.
When it was Slowdive’s turn to rumble the Palace, they kicked things off with the upbeat everything is alive opener, “Shanty.” The stage was bathed in brilliant red as a shifting laser pattern played on the screen behind the band. For the next 90 minutes or so, Slowdive unleashed their hypnotic brand of shoegaze onto the crowd. Letting the music speak for itself, they kept banter to a minimum save for the occasional “thank you.”
Visually, the set featured plenty of strobe lights and flashing visuals. Sonically, Slowdive delivered a spectacular set that spanned their catalog. Chaplin’s deep grumbling bass and Scott’s chaotically controlled drumming went into overdrive on tracks like “Souvlaki Space Station.” The instrumental track “prayer remembered” kept building and building until it released into silence. The repetitive nonsensical phrases of “the slab” conjured a sense of story — despite having no known lyrics — over a densely layered, nuanced soundscape.
The emotional peaks of Slowdive’s set came during “Slomo,” “When the Sun Hits,” and “40 Days.” While it can be difficult to discern lyrics in a live setting due to the massive sound created by the band, Halstead’s yearnings about dissonance, desolation, and lost love still resonated. Add to that the emotion evoked by layers of heavily delayed and fuzzed-out guitars, and you have a tear-filled audience hanging on every breathy word.
Closing out the main set was Slowdive’s colossal post-rock take on Syd Barrett’s “Golden Hair.” Goswell’s faint, ghostly vocals combined with Halstead and Savill’s richly textured guitar swells to create an extraordinarily powerful rendition of Barrett’s Madcap Laughs b-side. After her vocals faded away, Goswell left the stage as the rest of the band played the build-up through to its climax.
A Slowdive show is a full-body experience not for the faint of heart. The bass and synth’s deep rumble is bone-rattling. The strobes and flashing onscreen graphics are powerful enough to cause temporary vision loss if experienced full-on. The entire experience plunges deep into the viscera of the mind to amplify emotions and inflate inner turmoil. Grief becomes heavier — sadness, more clearly defined. And yet, a certain therapeutic quality comes from facing such a wall of sonic emotion. When the strobes stopped flashing, and the floor stopped vibrating, the stillness presented a welcomed sense of calm over the Palace and everyone in it.
Setlist
shanty
Star Roving
Catch the Breeze
Souvlaki Space Station
Crazy for You
kisses
Sugar for the Pill
Slomo
Alison
When the Sun Hits
Golden Hair (Syd Barrett cover)
Encore
prayer remembered
the slab
40 Days