Slowdive (State Theatre, Portland, Maine, February 1st, 2025)

The first song by the widely admired shoegaze band Slowdive that I really loved was a remix of “Shine” on the soundtrack of Gregg Araki’s 1999 movie Splendor. I backtracked from there to Slowdive’s early albums from a decade before, and I’ve also followed founding member Neil Halstead’s solo career since then. So I was excited to see Slowdive in concert for the first time this weekend at the State Theatre here in Portland, Maine, and the show did not disappoint. The demographics of the audience members spanned about forty years, which was also reassuring to confirm that the band’s sound has continued to appeal to listeners of diverse ages all over the country and the world. I sat right up at the top of balcony, directly in the center of the theatre’s speaker system, which was the perfect sonic position for one of the most immersive shows that I’ve ever attended.

Slowdive’s sound, a solid yet permeable wall of guitars and drums, anchored by Rachel Goswell’s vocals and synthesizers, swirled around the venue and surrounded the rapt audience for the better part of two hours. Song selections were drawn mostly from Slowdive’s 2023 album Everything Is Alive, along with interspersing the show with songs that reached back through their entire catalog. The band was backed by beautiful projections that matched both their aesthetic and the pace of the set to create an emotionally detailed experience for listeners, drowning the reverent crowd with equally powerful doses of music, color, and light.

I’m currently teaching a course at my university that focuses on lyricism in popular songs, and to say that the lyrics of Slowdive became overwhelmingly impressionistic in a live setting would be an understatement. In some cases the songs contain only about ten lines of distinct lyrics, and ironically, what makes the songs distinctive when played before an audience is that the words become indistinct in the waterfall of evocative sonic play. Adding to that irony is how Rachel Goswell’s ethereal vocals remain the core of the music’s energy, while also somehow mysteriously underpinning and hovering above it.

The crowd earned a quiet “How are you doing?” from Neil Halstead, but otherwise, Rachel Goswell provided pretty much the sole rapport as the female presence amongst her famously stoic male bandmates, and the adoring kids down front also received a thumbs up from her at the end of the show. Screams of “one more song!” were rewarded with an extended encore of about three more songs, so the audience’s enthusiastic yelps and rhythmic dancing were generously repaid.