After a few postponements, The Slow Show played Lafayette, London on 8th September. Supporting their latest album – Still Life, which was released earlier this year – The Slow Show were joined by Chloe Foy in support.
Chloe Foy, playing solo and accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, performed a six-song set. Including a new song amongst five from her 2021 debut album, Chloe kept the audience enthralled with her sweet voice. If the other five songs had not won over the audience already, ending her set with an acapella version of Square Face would have sealed the deal.
The Slow Show started their set with two of their earlier songs, Dresden and Strangers Now, before playing the opening track from their latest album. Lead singer Rob Goodwin’s voice was on form, his gravelly baritone carrying beautifully around the venue, the harmonies, along with the guitar, keyboard and drums all sounding beautiful.
As the show went on, and they continued to intersperse older songs with the latest ones, you got a sense of Rob’s on-stage persona. Singing in a contemplative manner – even when playing guitar – his demeanour added another level to the music – standing back and “thinking” during instrumental breaks and crouching down during longer periods of instrumentation. It was hard not to just watch Rob and see how he was acting/reacting throughout, even though the music made you want to close your eyes and listen.
Before playing Anybody Else Inside, Rob gave a history of how the song was written – which included stories from fans who had been asked to provide them to help with the writing for the album. He added explanations for others including Dry My Bones – about drinking gin – and Low, written when Rob was “down all the time”.
Ending the main set with possibly the most upbeat track, Ordinary Lives has an awesome guitar part, used to its full to demonstrate Joel Byrne-McCullough’s playing ability.
Returning for the obligatory encore, Rob spoke of the band’s feeling towards performing live, and sense of privilege to be doing it. They started off with “a quiet one” – in the form of Lucky You, Lucky Me – followed by Who Knows, and finished with Bloodline.
Having only heard the latest album, this show was a good introduction to their older songs, and it was easy to understand why there was a lady in the audience who had decided to go to all the shows on the European tour.
Set List
Dresden
Strangers Now
Mountbatten
Breaks Today
Anybody Else Inside
Vagabond
Hurts
Rare Bird
Dry My Bones
Low
Blinking
Hopeless Town
Ordinary Lives
Lucky You, Lucky Me
Who Knows
Bloodline
Chloe Foy
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The Slow Show
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