A little over a year ago, Slowdive released Everything Is Alive, the band’s fifth studio album. It was their second studio album since reforming in 2014 after roughly 20 years away, and it boosted the band to new heights!
After selling out 9:30 Club earlier this year, Slowdive recently returned to DC for a bigger show at The Anthem, and Nalinee Darmrong was there to photograph the concert.
The following article is adapted from a press release.
On Nov. 17 at The Anthem, Slowdive performed several selections from Everything Is Alive, but the shoegazers favored Souvlaki, their 1993 sophomore record, with six selections.
With regard to the new album, Slowdive made the live debut of the track “alife,” the record’s fourth single. They played it as the first song in the encore, which also included Souvlaki’s “Dagger” and “Machine Gun.”
In the “infectious, gorgeous” (Stereogum) “alife,” frontwoman Rachel Goswell’s voice is drenched in reverb and longing as she sings, “Two lives are hard lives with you,” complementing the vocal delivery of Neil Halstead throughout. Paste describes it as “Goswell’s (likely) greatest harmony performance in 30 years.”
Of “alife,” Halstead added: “‘alife’ is one of the first tunes we finished for the record. Shawn Everett did a really nice job with the mix. We tried so many times to figure out a good mix by ourselves and couldn’t do it… it sort of had us beaten until Shawn stepped in. We decided if he could handle that one he could probably do the whole record. Our friend Jake Nelson did a really nice animation for this song; it takes some of the imagery from the artwork and digs a little deeper into that.”
Watch the official music video for “alife” by Slowdive on YouTube:
Other highlights from Everything Is Alive included a performance of “shanty” to open the show and “kisses,” which was recently remixed in the middle. Slowdive closed the main set with “When the Sun Hits” from the ever-popular Souvlaki.
It’s amazing to see Slowdive back and drawing more people than ever to their concerts. They have quite a few North American shows scheduled for early 2025 and a few more dates this month as well.
Here are some photos of Slowdive performing at The Anthem on Nov. 17, 2024. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Nalinee Darmrong.
