Slowdive
with Drab Majesty
Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom • Denver, Colorado • October 6, 2023
by Steven Cruse
Layers. That’s the one word that finally connects all the experiences of seeing Slowdive in person. It took ruminating for a week to finally, cohesively come around to this verb and noun. Because this sold-out, life-affirming concert at Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom was both.
Layers. Of guitar wash. Of vocal harmonies. Of swirling, cascading, interwoven notes. It is near impossible to describe Slowdive without using every water-related adjective known to man. Shoegaze is about textures and layers of those stacked on each other to build waves of sound that envelop you. Cleanse you. A baptism of intentional and perfectly controlled feedback. I never got to see the daisy chain of pedals that Neil Halstead had in front of him — hell, I barely got to see his face, in true shoegaze fashion — but it had to be legion. And it all sounded studio-album perfect. Slowdive is meticulous about sound, and nowhere was that more evident than when watching their roadie switch out guitars between every single song!
Layers of climate.
It’s not uncommon for Denver, and really, all of Colorado, to have schizophrenic weather, but the stars aligned to drop temperatures from unseasonably warm highs in the 70s °F to a more fitting autumnal feel — just for this day, I like to believe, just for this performance — because temps soared back up to 80 °F the following afternoon. Slowdive and opening band Drab Majesty brought their moody, gloomy joy to the gathered masses on this early October eve, and it was transcendent. Personal. Layered.
Layers of coincidence.
Drab Majesty was a logical choice for the opening act, as their latest four track EP release, An Object in Motion, guests Rachel Goswell’s (Slowdive) vocals on opening track and lead single “Vanity.” I’ve seen Drab Majesty before, opening for Deafheaven during their Ordinary Corrupt Human Love LP-supporting tour. The duo hit a few of the high points and personal favorites from 2017’s The Demonstration, “39 By Design” and “Cold Souls,” as well as highlighting tracks from their newest, the aforementioned “Vanity” and my personal standout, “The Skin in the Glove.” Drab Majesty have a strong following — watch for the kids with fully opened red and white fans on the backs of their hoodies — and a distinctive look. Alien, robotic, but at half speed, with pure white wigs in the style of Andy Warhol, dark, dark wraparound Lou Reed glasses, and powdered faces.
Supporting Deafheaven, they wore silver jumpsuits and never moved on stage. Opening for Slowdive, they adopted Blues Brothers black suits and skinny ties. Oddly, it wasn’t until guitarist-vocalist Deb Demure broke out his acoustic 12 string for their final track “Skin in the Glove” that there was any body movement from the L.A.-based synth wave band, and that’s when I finally took note that he plays right-handed guitars, strung “upside-down” to play left-handed, like Hendrix. Demure actually rocked out, and I loved it! A layer had been set. A foundation of crisp, icy synths, layers of chiming guitar wash, deep, deep bass tones and synth drum loops, overlaid by Demure’s and Mona D’s alternating vocals. Demure approaches vocals almost as if he is emulating Andrew Eldritch of Sisters of Mercy, if you stripped out all the theatre of Sisters’ gothy metal. Baritone and emotionless. It works. I was mesmerized for a second time.
Layers of joy.
Slowdive began their set with track one off their newest album, 2023’s everything is alive, “shanty.” A wise choice as an album opener and start of their headlining performance. “shanty” has quickly risen as one of my favorite tracks from everything is alive, since my first full listen on release day when my pre-ordered vinyl arrived. What a glorious experience that was! And now, only a few months later, the band is in front of me recreating what is etched into vinyl. Perfectly. I was elated that I was finally seeing Slowdive in person, something I never imagined would be a reality due to geography and various reasons that had always been out of my control. As a fan of Slowdive since their first release, 1991’s Just for a Day, I was slightly disappointed that album was only represented by “Catch the Breeze.” I have owned and loved Just for a Day since 1991 and was fully aware that my favorite Slowdive song, “Brighter,” would not be played, but I was still hopeful. I was still very near tears when “Catch the Breeze” started. Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine’s “Loveless” from the same year had taken me. I was forever going to be captivated by this style because of this early exposure. I bowed my head and closed my eyes, luxuriating in the sounds, in reverence to Slowdive.
Layers of time.
Slowdive’s discography was well represented with at least one track from each of their five releases. They played to their fanbase and slanted heavily toward 1994’s Souvlaki, their second release and the one cementing the band as a cornerstone of the shoegaze style, with four tracks, including “Souvlaki Space Station” and “Alison,” and 2017’s self-titled Slowdive receiving three. Slowdive is the album that broke them to a wider audience, built on all the accolades of Souvlaki. Four tracks from everything is alive, including singles “kisses” and “the slab” showcased how proud Slowdive is of their new material, and with good reason!
Layers of visuals.
Mostly dominated by a smoke machine and projected geometric forms, the night’s visuals never distracted but accentuated the auditory journey presented by both bands. The Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom has a very large mirror ball over the main floor, and all heads craned upwards when it was lit, slowly rotating to sprinkle light across everything in the venue for one track. It was serenely magical, as the remainder of both bands’ light shows were straightforward, the sole exception being Slowdive’s animation of a capsule imprinted with “SD 198.9” (not so cryptic for “Slowdive 1989,” the year the band formed) that split and emptied its powdered contents on screen, rotated, multiplied. I wanted that on a t-shirt! A friend not in attendance posited later it was probably too close to Spiritualized iconography. There was a Gen X woman about four people deep from center stage who had camped herself directly in front of Rachel Goswell’s mic and synth stand and held up a life-sized Chucky doll so it could “watch” throughout the entirety of the show. That was memorable.
Layers of memories.
Once the house lights had come up and I had purchased my merch, I wandered a very brisk six blocks south on Welton Avenue to a friend’s bar. He and his business partner had recently taken ownership just months before. I sat on a stool and wrote some notes (most of which made it to print), and after the bar shut down at 2 a.m. and the three of us were left to shoot the shit about the evening and life until their closing duties finished up at 4 a.m., We spoke of our discovery of Slowdive, shoegaze in general, how much Five Points had changed, what the actual fuck was going on with the cold snap, and long lasting friendships., creating layers of memories by revisiting the strata of the previous decades.
Slowdive moved me this night. Not by spectacle or vavoom, but by being relentlessly in pursuit of a tone, a wave of emotions translated through effects pedals and amplifiers, and the harmonies of Goswell’s and Halstead’s voices. A tapestry of liquid sound. A new layer of memories. ◼
