Slowdive

Slowdive’s reunion has thankfully followed in the Portishead and My Bloody Valentine mold of coming back with a stellar album, which adds a sense of vitality and sincerity to the performances. Slowdive’s set therefore benefited from a fine balance of old and new, and it greatly helped that songs like ‘Sugar for the Pill’ count among their best ever work: the chiming guitar parts were well rendered live in a well constructed shimmering guitar dream pop soundscape.

The harmonies of the vocal duets sounded fantastic, some louder more frantic moments broke up the pace well and some complicated cascading lights added to the immersive effect. It was a shame however that the immersion was stifled by an overcrowded venue making it hard for people to get as close as they’d have liked, or at least to be able to get away from the thoroughfares and typical confederacy of talking dunces at the back of the room: I counted over 25 people in the bar area on top of what already felt like too many people in the main space.

Concorde 2, 12 December 2018
Rating:
Joe Fuller