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Music

Oh Damn, Mazzy Star Are Playing Their First Live Show In Five Years

The dream-pop forebears will reform for an appearance at Sydney's Vivid Festival.
Lauren O'Neill
London, GB
Screenshot via

Even if you're not familiar with Mazzy Star, it's quite possible that you'll know their biggest song "Fade Into You." It's a dreamy watercolour of a track that encompasses both what's so amazing about the band (their ability to create an entire landscape out of simple suggestion, basically), and how they'd come to have such a massive influence on the future of indie-rock and pop – their light touch can be felt on artists from Beach House to Lana Del Rey. On the song. Hope Sandoval's vocals float over the azure swimming pool conjured by the guitars, and the group's distinct propensity for setting a mood, exemplified here –and visible throughout their entire catalogue – means that since I got into them a while back, I've always hoped I'd be able to see it (feel it) exemplified before me within four walls.

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It's now been announced that the lucky people of Sydney will get that opportunity. Mazzy Star will play their first live show since 2013 at the city's three week-long Vivid festival, which will also see shows from Ice Cube, St. Vincent, Cat Power (who'll celebrate the 20th anniversary of her album Moon Pix with a special show), and loads more. It's a stacked bill, to be sure, with Mazzy Star as a pretty incredible highlight – a rare appearance by an even more rare band. In our current landscape, where bedroom dream-pop is par for the course, it's easy to forget early influences like them, but their live return (which, hopefully, will extend further than this one show) is an excellent reminder, and also a great excuse to listen to So Tonight that I Might See and cry on the bus (that is, if you even needed one). See the full Vivid Sydney lineup here, and if you're not in Australia, join me in loudly complaining about that fact.

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