It couldn't be called a long awaited return given both the headliners Slowdive and support Beach Fossils were both here two years ago.
However, there would certainly have been a great anticipation given the reputation of the former – both for those who have and those who haven't seen them before.Perhaps a more appropriate support for Slowdive than Andrew Tuttle's banjo playing at their previous appearance in Adelaide, Beach Fossils last played our state; also in support of Modest Mouse at the Thebarton Theatre Daydream festival sideshow.
In a set (4 May) embellished by instrumental interludes between songs, frontman Dustin Payseur's languid vocals over the bouncy, galloping introductory 'Don't Fade Away' set the tone for their generous 11-song set – nearly half coming from their 2017 album 'Somersalt' including 'Sugar' with the band joyously nodding in unison.
Charismatic guitarist Tommy Davidson plays the role of MC throughout the set, a highlight of which is when a request is made to turn the stage and house lights off and the venue is lit only by audience phone lights to great success while the band perform 'Sleep Apnea'.
Their penultimate song 'Numb' is expansive and epic, sounding like the genre of shoegaze blending into grunge before the band close with the uptempo melancholy of ' 'May 1st'.
Beach Fossils in Melbourne 3 May, 2025 - image © Danielle Annetts
Commencing with a dreamy version of 'Avalyn', from their 1990 debut EP, followed closely by the more contemporary 'Shanty' (which opens their latest album 'Everything Is Alive' released concurrent with their last Australian tour), it gradually becomes apparent from the start this is a more distinct Slowdive than ever before.
Their trademark soaring drone (used to far more greater commercial success by Sigur Ros) is still present in songs from the second incarnation since reforming in 2014, such as 'Star Roving' from their self-titled recorded return, but older songs like 'Catch The Breeze' sound different, more grounded.
It is a considered set list, the abstraction of the maligned final original Slowdive album 'Pygmalion' represented by 'Crazy For You' then fittingly followed by the dub experimentalism of 'Souvlaki Space Station'.
In the beginning of the extended instrumental portion of the song, co-singer Rachel Goswell walks over to bandleader guitarist Neil Halstead's side of the stage to momentarily survey the audience. It comes to mind this is not the same band as their original incarnation, but an evolution, leaving behind those who have come in their wake and have been grouped in the somewhat watered-down version of shoegaze known as dream pop (sorry, Beach Fossils).
It all seems to make sense now, this being a more fully realised version of the band even more than two years ago when they last visited. As they play, the contrast between themselves and the new bands they have inspired is starkly significant.
They started as a band so young that their second wind is not a band past their sell-by date rehashing old product. It now seems ironic that the genre of shoegaze was alternately known as the scene that celebrates itself, and this is now never more apparent than in the movement spawned in Slowdive's absence.
A trio of songs from the 'Souvlaki' album including 'Machine Gun' and 'Alison' culminates in the anthemic 'When The Sun Hits' the audience slowly coming to recognise their favourite and singing along.
Slowdive in Melbourne 3 May, 2025 - image © Danielle Annetts
The stage and audience alike are bathed in red light for the opening wyrd folk of their interpretation of James Joyce's (via Syd Barrett) 'Golden Hair'. Rachel performs the introductory vocal then leaves the stage for the initial slow-burn instrumental during which Syd Barrett is projected above and behind the band like the opening to 'Doctor Who'.
The song gradually builds to a soaring climax, a howling musical storm and the audience erupt into applause while inexplicably 'Carry On' stalwart Sid James' visage replaces that of Barrett in the final moments as the band leave the stage.
The age-old tradition on an encore seems superfluous in the context of the set that preceded it and although Rachel announces: "We're going to play a song we haven't played in very long time," (early song 'She Calls'), this along with regular closer '40 Days' is just a coda, a comedown from what came before.
It was more than thirty years before I first experienced Slowdive live in 2023, and before this latest live performance less than two years after they last played here, I had thought that maybe I wouldn't need to see them if they came again within a relatively short period, but on the basis of this show I definitely would not pass them by on any future visits no matter how soon.
