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First time I saw Slowdive live in 2014, their acclaimed reunion, I never hoped back then I might have seen them again. And right again that's what I thought my second time in 2017. And again last night, here in Rome. This could be your last goodbye, I don't know when, and I don't know why... right Televise? BTW, 46 euro to see them live, that pretty pissed me off.. Of course Slowdive should be covered instantly with gold and penguins since day one, still, I can't stand that Live Music may be a 'rich people'-thing only.. especially because I'm not rich at all.. and I don't even want to participate to this kind of normalization of high tickets prices. Fuck that.
So, their first time in Rome. Opening act: Any Other. Not my cup of tea. That's it.
Dear Slowdive, I'll be honest. I haven't bought your new record yet. And not only for all the hyped hype around its release, but also because I have been able to enjoy only a few tracks from the whole tracklist. Last but not least, I'm still trying to read the font 6pt of your s/t reunion record. So, because of all these mentioned things, that's probably why a couple him/her standing close to me were have been spending tears for the whole show and I did not. May I add me and my sweet wife exchanged our marriage rings on the notes of Sugar for the pill? So, thank you so much for performing this song last night. Yeah, we know it's not exactly a song to wish a happy marriage, but.. you know what.. it is. 
So, dear diary, me and my wife were together at this lovely show by Slowdive, we felt enthralled and been dancing together all the night when not simply raptured. Checking on here and there if the babysitter called. Our first night out since our sweet baby girl arrived last year. No, we did not name her Rachel. Irene. Irene means peace. Did I already tell you about her poo? So cliché.
I counted three Jazz Chorus 120 Roland amps (two for Neil, one for Rachel), plus an AC30 Vox plus a Fender Twin Reverb for Christian. I was happy to see the average age of the audience was mixed, from under age kids to.. me and on. I loved that. 
Slowdive continue to pay homage to Brian Eno opening their show with Deep Blue Day  and with An Ending (Ascent), as.. ending.. then, first track is Shanty. But, it's when Simon Scott started playing Star Roving like 2x speed, I wished if only they could have record it like this in studio and tasted the sparkle. And they don't waste time chatting, because it's time for Catch the Breeze. Ohhh blissuful tune.. pure elegycal.. I confess that Skin in the game and their reworked version of Crazy for You sounded like fillling tracks. Luckly, they fly on Souvlaki Space Station, with a spectacular crescendo. I noticed our guys won't talk or even cross each other's eyes.. everything's ok, pals? A mix of shyness and tension. Nick won't higher his face from the spider drawn on his black t-shirt, Christian is in his world of sound bathing.. Simon is pure balance. I love his drum set. Rachel is the one having fun, venturing some dancing moves in front of her biggest fan. Literally, they placed an enormous fan in front of her. 'It took us a while' to be in Rome, she says. Neil pours out a series of GRATZI, and I will never understand how the word GRAZIE may sound so difficult to be pronunced correctly for a foreign artist on stage in Italy. My two cents, people: try to say ghrat-see-yeh. Who cares.
Chained to a cloud. It's hard to me, I can't even recall the melody. Probably I'm ageing badly. And no sleep since a year. Then Sugar for the Pill. Oh L O V E. You can't hide the Sun. We kissed. Just right before their Kisses. That's a good one, I agree. Alison, When the Sun Hits, Golden Hair, what a triplet. You know what only could almost ruin these songs? Dear concertgoers, put your phones fuck away. Useless <1minute video recordings of 'I was there and you were not' prove only you were there only to watch your smartphone screen. Shame on you. Enjoy your short life and put away your phone. When I started this fanzine a million years ago, I used to film live shows I attended, trying to snap some good picture of a memory, which, differently, hardly you might have witnessed. Nowadays it's all available, with a better resolution quality than my chinese crappy smartphone or even my camera. I needed to enjoy this show, this moment, also because it was like two years since the last I went to.. oh jeez. 
Slowdive came back on stage after a small pause, playing Slowdive, Slomo and 40 Days. Yeah, I yelled SLEEEEEP a couple of times.. that would have driven me to tears, like that couple. And probably it's not that freudian, me and my wife we need to get a good night's sleep finally.
Below picture, not by me (sorry, no idea who shot it, - if so, let me know): the one with the hat on  is me. I'm embracing my wife, in front of me, enjoying life. My good friend Mich at my right. Magic moment. 
Thank you Slowdive, thank you for your Music, since day one.. see you.. again?



Okay, on YT, this guy Federico Francesco Falco filmed the whole show. Subscribe his channel, enjoy vid.

Not exactly that naiad you may dream of, still, that magic and playful.

Hermeto Pascoal, b. 1936, what a legend,  albino, Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist.



Above, it is an original snippet from Sinfonia do Alto Ribeira, by Ricardo Lua, recorded in 1985 at the Petar - Parque Estadual Turístico do Alto Ribeira, Município de Iporanga-SP: "a documentary made to draw attention to the plight of Parque Estadual do Alto da Ribeira (High Creek State Park), a park near the southern border of São Paulo state" [via], whose Hermeto scored music for. It's not Music from Brasil, but Brasil doing music, percussively, blowing away through Nature.

Filme completo, here:

About time. (Amazing illustrator as well as) multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Andrew Prinz and guitarist/vocalist Jaclyn Slimm are the Mahogany dual entity since several years, but, they finally released a new title on vinyl together only now. 
A side, B side, A Scaffold / Polyvalence are two faces of the same Ian Curtis dance. I can't think of any different way to dance at these drum beats and bass lines. A dance of two elegant pieces of Music, oneiric, highly suggestive, dream like propelled, yeah, oneirically enwrapping me/the listener into the obsessive sequencer and drum loops, feeding the majestive work of electric guitars weep and bass articulation, reaching saturation of sound. 
Jaclyn vocals style keeps faith to the mood of previous Mahogany's records, and this two track release fits perfectly with what made different and great Mahogany's writing. 
Just bought on BC.