Slowdive Brings Some Sparkly Shoegaze Back to Toronto

The busy streets of Toronto were slowed down for a couple hours on January 25th, when English band Slowdive brought their soft shoegaze tunes back into Toronto's own Massey Hall, supported by Florida artist Quannnic. Together, they entranced their crowd and distracting them from the chaos of the city outside.

Quannnic, a shoegaze/emo rock artist from Florida was the first to the stage. The 20-year old artist played a lovely set, preparing the atmosphere with emotional lyrics and beautiful chords and drum fills to back them up. The heavy distortion on the guitars and slower beats helped Quannnic's vocals and lyrics shine through. The breathy, emotional vocals beautifully contrasted the heavier sounding guitars, weaving an ethereal and dreamy sound through the venue. The crowd swayed and sometimes sang along, falling into a trance when Quannnic bid their Toronto crowd goodbye. The crowd wasn't about to leave their dream-like trance since they would fall deeper into it when Slowdive took the stage.

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Just as the crowd was about to snap out of their trance, shoegaze giants Slowdive took to the stage. Vocalist/guitarists Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead, bassist Nick Chaplin, guitarist Christian Savill and drummer Simon Scott worked together to start their set off strong with Avalyn, which flowed right into shanty and Star Roving. All throughout, the lights flickered and turned, almost transporting the crowd to a fantasy-like world with the dreamy music, sparkling lights and flickering backgrounds.

After the first three songs, photographers weren't allowed to photograph anymore, which was such a shame, since the lights and background were only getting more and more beautiful as the show went deeper into the night. The lights started to flash and flicker like strobe lights found in clubs, but this time accompanied by slow distorted guitars from Halstead and Savill and Goswell's beautiful vocals during Catch The Breeze.

The whole concert experience was breathtaking and made you feel like you were listening to something out of this world. The lights fit the theme of the songs and changed perfectly on the beat, and the backgrounds were beautiful and fitting to the overall vibe and energy of the song. Goswell would also dance during the long instrumentals Slowdive is known for, and her movements were so fluid. Couple that with her simple outfit and accessories, it was like watching a nymph or some mythical creature dance around in a fairytale.

The rest of the night only got better as it went on. At the first few sparkling notes of Crazy For You the crowd cheered loudly and well, went crazy for Crazy For You. They went on to play some of their hits, such as Souvlaki Space Station, Sugar For The Pill, Alison, and closed the set off with When The Sun Hits. By the time When The Sun Hits was played, the spirits of the crowd were running high, and culminated in a loud cheer at the end of Slowdive's set. The atmosphere became so energetic and lively by the end that people started to jump around and even some in the balcony were jumping with joy. It was endearing to see fans so excited by their favourite band's music.

Not only that, but instead of cheering for an encore using the classic "one more time" chant, fans started to clap rhythmically, and got faster and faster until the band returned to the stage to play a four song encore of Slowmo, alife, Dagger and Machine Gun. These four songs gave a powerful finish to the beloved shoegaze band's show, and as Slowdive bid Toronto goodbye, fans on the floor went wild, and those in the balcony gave them a well deserved standing ovation.