Slowdive in Singapore

The last time I was at Capitol Theatre, was in end February to watch Explosions in the Sky (yes, again). I usually get standing tickets to these gigs. It has been years, but the air-conditioning in this theatre feels non-existent at a full-house gig. It can get suffocating after an hour. Tonight, I'm here to catch Slowdive. 

Since it's Ramadan, the shows started later so that Muslims could break fast first. Our very own motifs opened the show; they came on at 8.15pm. I've heard motifs when they launched their debut album 'remember a stranger' last April at Esplanade Annex Theatre. So I didn't turn up that early to catch their set. Caught the last bits of it. 

Slowdive came on at 9.05pm. Ahhh... shoegaze. I take it as the emo band of my teenaged years. When I wanted something quieter over Nirvana and Prodigy, I listened to shoegaze, and Slowdive featured quite prominently on my... cassette tapes and CDs! Hahahaha. The band broke up after the release of their third album 'Pygmalion' in 1995. They only reformed in 2014 and began making music.

The band played a few songs from their latest album, 'Everything is Alive' (2023). Think 'Kisses' and 'Chained to a Cloud'. Of course!!! It was a sold-out gig, with loads of young people and teens in the audience too. We were like, 'Ehhhhh....  how come this band has got Gen Z fans too?' Then we were like, 'Ohhh. TikTok'. But Slowdive's music is pretty easy to digest. It's gorgeous when set to video clips and self-reflections spiels and things like that. It should reach loads of people across ages for all sorts of reasons. 

In an interview with Will Richards at The Standard in November 2023, the band's vocalist and songwriter Neil Halstead said that way back when in 1995, they were “the runt of the shoegaze litter,” Now, it's all different.

In the last few years especially, the rise of TikTok has brought the band a surprising new fanbase of teens obsessed with their widescreen brand of rock. Scour the app and you’ll see scores of videos soundtracked by the band’s 1993 song When The Sun Hits, where users work through their issues or tell stories from their lives with the song as a canvas. Videos include short films detailing the pain of long-distance relationships and discussions about mental health and the healing power of music. The track’s lyrical refrain – “it matters where you are”' – has been scrawled onto bedroom walls and inspired tattoos.

The night also had some good old ones from the album 'Souvlaki' (released in 1993) — loved 'When the Sun Hits' and 'Dagger'. They also played one of my favorite singles, 'Sugar for the Pill' which was released as a single in 2017 and later put into their fourth album eponymously titled 'Slowdive'. 

The band just played in Bangkok the previous night. The friends loved the show and all its digital and light magic. Nothing complicated, but loads of effort put in. They said that the Singapore show should be equally awesome. It was. The songs brought back so much memories for us. I believe that word, for many of us present at Slowdive's shows in Bangkok and Singapore, is nostalgia. I totally enjoyed myself!