Slowdive at Fine Line Music Cafe, Minneapolis (31 Oct 2014)

Shoegaze band Slowdive are currently on a reunion tour, stopping by Minneapolis’ Fine Line Music Café, after being absent from the city in twenty-two years!



Local DJ Jake Rudh played some 80s music for fans waiting for the band to take the stage. Originally music videos, but after Low, there was no video screen, so it was just audio.

Low

Low came on stage as ZZ Top, complete fuzzy guitars and horseshoe moustache on drummer Mimi Parker. The band Duluth band have been busy playing support dates for Slowdive on this current tour, which singer/guitarist Alan Sparhawk described Slowdive “as sweet as they sound.”

Low Setlist

The slo-core band played a block of The Invisible Way early in their set (“Plastic Cup”, “On My Own”, and “Holy Ghost”) and filling out the rest of their limited set with songs from their previous other albums. Since it was Halloween, the band said it was fitting that they played “Murderer”.



The audience was completely attentive and quiet, which is the perfect crowd for Low’s music… but a few of us wondered why there was the rare barrier to the stage at the Fine Line Music Café. It was probably because it was sold out (but I’ve attended many sold out shows at the Fine Line and they never had a barrier), but it’s probably more likely that it was set up to give easier access to photographers.



Before we talk about Slowdive, you have to get yourself familiarized with Shoegazing music, which is typically full of guitar effects and layers with melodic vocals blending in. Check out our 40-min podcast on the subject, which we discussed Slowdive (later Mojave 3), among others. That type of music took roots in the early 90s, but almost immediately went away as the popular Britpop genre that took over England in the early to mid-90s. With the recent revival of Chapterhouse and My Bloody Valentine, it might be worth your time to check out some of these bands’ back catalog to get a complete picture of the genre.

Slowdive

Anyway, Halloween shows are always fun, because half the fun of watching the band is also watching the audience for some great costumes. Usually bands will come on stage in costumes, but for Reading-based Slowdive, they went all out! Not only was everyone, including the audio techs and sound engineers, dressed up, but they went the extra mile and dressed their stage with various Halloween fun like cobwebs, handmade pirate flags, skulls, pumpkins, candies! This tells me the band are really committed to show us a good time!



Talking to fans before the show, there were a lot of people who never caught the band the first time around when they came to the US with Ride in 1992, so they were all eager to see Slowdive for the first time. Fans drove as far as from Oklahoma City (a six hour drive) just to see this Slowdive appearance.

Slowdive Setlist

As soon as Slowdive came on stage to John Carpenter’s “Halloween Theme”, the band handed everyone in front glowsticks to get us into the dark mood. In addition to the Halloween decorations, the band also had a custom stage projection of graphics to their songs.
With Slowdive’s live set, they did a great job reproducing tracks from their three studio albums (Just for a Day, Souvlaki and Pygmalion) with some great vocals from Slowdive’s two main songwriters, Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell. In fact, most of the primarily original band members (drummer Simon Scott, bassist Nick Chaplin, guitarist Christian Savill) were really tight on their instruments, as if they have been rehearsing since the 90s.



In the middle of their set, the band handed us Halloween candies, which was such a treat. They would later hand us candies again on their encore. I’ve attended a lot of Halloween concerts, and this is the first time the band brought us sweets.



The biggest cheers of the night had to before “Machine Gun” and “Alison”. The set closer, “Golden Hair”, Syd Barrett cover, had Rachel leaving early to let the rest of the band play an extended jam as the audience cheered on until the band left the stage, only to come back for the inevitable encore. Two tracks “Albatross” and “40 Days” were played to perfectly end their show.



With a lot of interests and rumors of Slowdive to record a fourth studio album, we all hope they’ll return back to the city soon and not take another 20 years to come back. I doubt anyone in the audience will likely forget this show.



Slowdive will be in Vancouver, Canada, on November 3rd and continues to the West Coast (Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and ending in Los Angeles) before returning to London at the Forum for a two night residency. If those dates are not already sold out, you must do yourself a favor and get a ticket.

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com)
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