Review: Slowdive at Magnet House
Slowdive at Magnet House
w/ Beach Fossils
Thursday, May 1, 2025
It’s less than two years since Slowdive’s last tour. And there was good reason for this one being nearly twice as popular.
Largely, that was support act Beach Fossils. Their double bill at the Astor Theatre was long since sold out, so promoters went all out with a second show at Magnet House, and what a one-two punch it was.
The Brooklyn lo-fi indie rockers, who share lineage with DIIV and have collaborated with the likes of Blonde Redhead and Wild Nothing, are a more muscular offering live.
With intertwining guitars and melodies reminiscent of Real Estate, they had us wanting more from the dream pop hit of Sugar onwards. What a Pleasure was just that, all chiming guitars and beats, while Down the Line was propelled by a Cure-like bassline, and Be Nothing the epic centre point.
Best of all was Tough Love, which balanced their signature atmospherics and pure pop songwriting perfectly, before Numb from their latest record, Bunny, closed out their set with some monster riffing.
“We recorded these songs in the bedroom, and then we’re asked to go on tour with Slowdive,” frontman Dustin Payseur mused in humble fashion. While they may be decidedly non-lofi live, it’s a welcome change-up and one we can only hope to see more of.
It’s less than two years since their last visit, but at that point Slowdive had yet to release their latest record, everything is alive. With a substantially different setlist from Wednesday night’s Astor show, they opened with shanty, making the most of the new record’s electronic textures on this as well as kisses and chained to a cloud later.
As with previous tours, Catch the Breeze was simply mesmerising three tracks in, particularly in the finale section as strobes kicked in and the epic sound moved closer to post-rock territory. Whilst there were no visuals this time (notably missed on Sugar for the Pill), the sound and lighting at Magnet House was impressive all night.
Never afraid to start strong, by the time No Longer Making Time kicked in at track four, things were properly soaring. In an interesting new arrangement that sees keyboardist Rachel Goswell handling vocals, bandmate and main songwriter Neil Halstead was free to concentrate on the quiet-loud guitar dynamic created by him and fellow guitar-slinger Christian Savill.
Particularly thunderous was their cover of Syd Barrett’s Golden Hair prior to the encore. Goswell was eye-catching with her new platinum blonde do, singing the verses before leaving the stage as the Slowdive live interpretation took things to another level completely—a transcendent and magical one we can imagine Syd would approve of.
While the encore was a little anticlimactic, dipping back largely to their debut 1990 EP (and no Slomo or Dagger to be heard), for the most part, the set’s second half was a dreamy triumph made up of standouts from 1993 masterpiece Souvlaki. The pop smarts of Alison and the more experimental Souvlaki Space Station and When the Sun Hits were standouts.
With Slowdive’s comeback now exceeding 11 years and their relevance confirmed by as many kids in attendance as Gen Xers, it was nice to see something fresh brought to the table with Beach Fossils on the bill. Both are part of a dream pop lineage reaching as far back as the Cocteau Twins, and Slowdive presented as both present-day faves and elder statespersons simultaneously.
HARVEY RAE
Photos by Chaz Hales
