Live Review: Slowdive, Beach Fossils @ Festival Hall, Melbourne

Taking in a gig on election night is a great way to avoid the collective vote-counting anxiety as the nation waits for the results.

Arriving just in time for Beach Fossils, there isn’t much of a buzz outside Festival Hall. Surprisingly, most ticket holders are inside and waiting for them to play. The trio of indie rockers from New York are in fine form as they drop a set with a post-punk styled shoegaze vibe, drawing from the five albums they have released since 2010.

We last saw them about two years ago at the Daydream Festival. They have not released much new material since then, and while their sound remains largely the same, it’s a delight to revel in their live show. The almost packed-out Festival Hall evidences that Beach Fossils’ fanbase has considerably grown.

Frontman Dustin Payseur etches delicate melodies upon the mix with his light and airy vocals. His voice seemingly floated above the shimmering swirl of reverb-drenched guitar and twangy bass that sometimes felt like it was beaming in from the early eighties. At times, artists like The Church, Johnny Marr, and even The Cure echo ghostly across the set.

Jaunty beats through most of their tunes prevent Beach Fossils from sounding too dreamy, giving their set momentum and propelling them quickly through a broad selection of three-minute pop songs. Over the past fifteen years, Beach Fossils have shifted from a fairly traditional indie sound to absorb the dreamy influence of shoegaze to approach a sound that feels like dream pop. The crowd on the floor bounced to the beats, but those seated right at the very back of the bleachers were able to disconnect and just drift into the haze of sound they crafted. Trying to dissect what’s happening feels irrelevant. Beach Fossils live are just to be enjoyed.

They started with Don’t Fade Away which elicited a huge roar of approval from the crowd. It was immediately obvious that they were not here to impress us with flashy rock star theatrics. Rather, they worked together with tight precision and connected with the audience on their own terms. What A Pleasure, Sleep Apnea and Tough Love proved to be personal favourites from the night. The glorious shoegaze vibes of Numb almost feels anthemic, and it was the perfect close to their show.

Arguably one of the best shoegaze bands to emerge from the nineties, it feels miraculous to see Slowdive currently enjoying something of a renaissance. After all, they now emerge victorious as survivors of the shoegaze backlash of the nineties which in retrospect feels a bit like the “disco sucks” movement of the seventies.

The crowd was peppered with people who looked as though they wished Slowdive had toured Australia when Souvlaki Space Station was released last century, back in ’93. Some thirty years later, it is amazing to see that Everything Is Alive, released in 2023, has brought an enthusiastic younger generation of followers to what feels like an all-ages gig that spans generations.

They start with shanty and envelop the crowd with a lusciously warm and dreamy sound that is as smoother than silk. Rachel Goswell’s angelic vocals shine through the mix, and she works in tandem with the group’s primary songwriter, Neil Halstead’s vocals. As usual, their vocals are low in the mix, and the emphasis is on the immersive swirl of truly opulent sound into which it’s just easy to lose yourself.

Meanwhile, Nick Chaplin’s bass has a kind of ‘80s Peter Hook vibe about it, while Simon Scott’s precise drumming provides the beats. Christian Savill’s guitar interlocks with Halstead’s to create that trademark fuzzed-out wall of guitar sound.

Star Roving well and truly launches us into the magical depths of outer space. It’s quickly followed by the magnificent Catch A Breeze. A sentimental favourite, the song feels like it builds a sonic cathedral in Festival Hall with a hymnal haze of melody emerging from driving guitar feedback and lashing of effects.

Hearts soar and the crowd roars with approval as they drop the evocative No Longer Making Time. Taken from their third album, Crazy For You, the track kind of warps into a pop ambient moment. Slowdive always smoothed the rough and jagged edges of their shoegaze contemporaries. Taking their cue from Cocteau Twins, they opted to produce exquisitely beautiful dream pop that moved beyond the Cocteau Twins, balancing fluffy blissed-out ethereal light with the grit of indie shade.

In 2025, Slowdive have somehow improved upon the music they produced in the nineties with a couple of comeback albums. The kind of uplifting transcendence that Souvlaki Space Station and Machine Gun offer is more than matched by newer cuts like Sugar For The Pill and Kisses. Slowdive sound huge, and these songs roar off the stage. The raw guitar grind of When The Sun Hits is no exception.

A cover of Syd Barrett’s Golden Hair evolves into an extended instrumental that brings to mind vintage Cocteau Twins. Encores are comprised of Slomo, Slowdive and arguably their best song, 40 Days, which perhaps did not come off as enthralling as the recorded version to which we are accustomed. The lights went up on a crowd clearly coming down off 90 euphoric minutes of immersive brilliance. Fingers crossed that Slowdive don’t go on another 20-year hiatus anytime soon. Election results can wait till tomorrow.