The Return Of My Bloody Valentine

also: another mate has one spare ticket for the july 2 gig in glasgow, if anyone's interested. e-mail me.

They ran out of earplugs at the merch stand last night, although we arrived there just before the band started. I'll take my Etymotics to the other gigs I think, although I haven't felt any ill-effects from last night (this isn't a good sign. Really should get my hearing checked out).

and further to the guitar confusion above: on YMMR Kevin played a Jazzmaster. Bilinda has some beautiful Mustangs.

That was everything I wanted it to be. Manchester and Glasgow to come, although I fancy another night at the Roundhouse..

wire pretty much deafened me for a day a few years back (my own fault for standing right in front of a stack) and ever since then i've been a little more aware of the damage i could be doing to my ears.

The same thing happened to me at a J Mascis gig a few years ago. My head felt like it was in a fishbowl for three days. I've worn plugs to (almost) every gig I've been to ever since, and I actually enjoy shows more now, since the plugs cut out a lot of the distortion from shitty PAs.

Thanks for the live reports everyone, I seriously cannot fucking wait for ATP New York

Roundhouse setlist from 6/20, Friday night:

Only shallow
When you sleep
You never should
(When you wake) you're still in a dream
Lose my breath
I only said
Come in alone
Thorn
Nothing much to lose
To here knows when
Slow
Blown a wish
Soon
Feed me with your kiss
Sueisfine
You made me realise / 15+ mins of noisy feedback

(Dont' know who his current band is.)

sonic's current group is like a bitesize budget spacemen 3; there's a guy playing jason-esque will the circle be unbroken esque tremolo and guitar noise, but it's kind of sub-spacemen-3 instead of sub-staple-singers. the setlist's all? s3 stuff, i think, but no fun, maybe apart from when tomorrow hits. uhh.

setlist's all? s3 stuff, i think, but no fun

...last time I saw Sonic he did a cover of Kraftwerk's "Hall of Mirrors" which wasn't half bad...

>>...last time I saw Sonic he did a cover of Kraftwerk's "Hall of Mirrors" which wasn't half bad...

I saw Mr Boom do this too, & he's right. It was *all* bad ho ho...

har har har.

YOU ARE NOT WUSSY TO USE EARPLUGS.

Not at all. Fifteen years ago, they were the loudest show I've ever seen and still hold that title.

http://us.st12.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/earplugstore_2005_138556711

I can't wait!

Is this worth $100?

I got my ticket for the July 2nd gig on Saturday thankfully - looks like I'm going to be nancy nae pals that night. I've got some squishy foam ear plugs but I dunno if I should get something more substantial. Might have to give the fully YMMR a miss in order to get the last bus back to Edinburgh.

Not as loud as the Swans in 86, but my ears are certainly ringing still after last night's gig.

I used squishy foam ones from Boots and they were fine, but don't think of going without any. It was quite fun removing them for a few seconds during You Made Me Realise and suddenly hearing the violent higher registers - like being shot in the ear with broken glass. When you pop them back in it sounds weirdly comforting again.

Yeah I wore plugs throughout, and my ears are still ringing. Pretty amazing show though.

I'm going to see them in Paris, july 9th, I'm psyched! I wrote down earplugs at the top of my to-do list, thanks for that.

Do they sell merchandise at the concerts?

Very overpriced t-shirts, £23 for a standard one IIRC.

Earplugs were handed out at the entrance. I opted not to take them, but they're there for those that want.

Gah! So no nice (tour-)poster or anything? I can keep the money in my pocket then.

Not that I saw, must admit I examined the merch in passing only though...

Didn't see earplugs at the entrance to the Roundhouse, and when we went upstairs they'd ran out at the merch desk (I didn't examine the offerings myself). loads of crap tshirts outside, if that's what you want.

I forgot my plugs, but I didn't have any ringing. My ability to listen to conversations over any sort of background noise seems to be worse than usual though. I'll take my plugs to the other gigs, I reckon.

Very overpriced t-shirts, £23 for a standard one IIRC.

The Mary Chain stung (admittedly drunk and malleable) me with similar pricing at the Brixton shows last year.

I'm taking plugs tomorrow for defs - I'm worried anought about encroaching tinnitus/random daytime distortion as it is.

No takers for my two 3 Jul Barrowlands spares then?

anought = enough

sorry, charlie: nobody's bitten yet. or for the (single) ticket for the 2nd, either. i asked a couple of people but they'd either decided not to go at all (bah) or got sorted elsewhere.

i'm back at work (in my NEW, IMPROVED PART-TIME ROLE, woo) on wednesday so will ask about there too.

Are any of the Glasgow Ilxors going on July 2nd?

The Loveless and Isn't anything CDs have been put back to 14th July now.

Tom E's review for PF:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/51442-live-my-bloody-valentine

I'm hearing September now; someone on the MBV.net forums who claims to have been backstage on Friday got the same prediction from Shields.

Did he specify which September?

The earth wind and fire one.

Well, the discs exist at least. Quite what's going to delay their release further isn't clear.

For those that care, "Only Shallow" is around 2-2.5dB louder, but no squashing of peaks (it never peaked higher than -4dB on the 1991 CD anyway). The Disc 2 remaster (from analogue tape, apparently) is a smidgen louder than the Disc 1 remaster and sounds richer, better separated.

Does that count as a spoiler? It's only a reissue.

Going tonight, but I've just found out someone can't come, so I have a spare ticket.

Anyone?

yeah,they were LOUD. We didn't use the earplugs cos we were kinda at the back, 6 metres in though.. woah! Loved it, loved the visuals too.

xpost to MJones:

I wonder how it compares to the original minidisc version.

Went last night, same as mmmm above I was standing fairly nearly the back so I didn't use the earplugs, I'm not too deaf today though. I guess cos the venue's pretty massive, I usually get more ringing in my ears than this after gigs in smaller venues.

Spectrum only played 4 songs, and were a bit under-rehearsed. At least there wasn't any Speak'n'Spell noodling though.

Tried to sell my wife's ticket as she's sick and couldn't make it, tout offered me 2 quid for it, I said c'mon I can't even buy a beer for that and walked off, he called me a cunt and a wanker, then got his cock out and started pissing in the middle of the street right in front of the venue. GG Allin's not dead! He's a Camden ticket tout!

Yeah, I had read somewhere the touts have taken a total rinsing on this. Apparently tickets can be had at any of the local boozers for about a tenner on the night.

True, but because of the way they announced the gigs (pretty much one day at a time for London), a lot of people I know have tickets for Manchester and Glasgow when they could easily have gone to 2 or 3 nights at the Roundhouse, and just can't give away tickets to the other cities, or they've made travel arrangements and such.

Yeah I have a friend in Brighton who's going to the Manchester gig because of that. Stupid promoters.

I went last Friday ('cos a friend managed to get a pair of tickets for me on the day they went on sale), but my girlfriend and I had already bought tickets for saturday in Manchester (not a massive problem, I used to live there and haven't seen a lot of friends in a while), and the Wednesday in Glasgow, which is going to be a mini-holiday of sorts, albeit I don't really know anyone up there. Barrowlands is a sweet venue though, and I'm getting very excited (and probably building myself up for a big disappointment) by the support rumours (Teenage Fanclub or Mogwai maybe?), and I have leave to use up, and I got fairly cheap train tickets, so it's not a total disaster.

albeit I don't really know anyone up there

we're all great and friendly ... i'm out and about elsewhere on wednesday night (am going to MBV on thursday because i was slow off the mark getting tickets) but if you're in town early evening and fancy a pint, let us know. (or post on try glasgow more and see if anyone else is up for it.)

how worthwhile is a purchase of the 'remaster' then?

Pastels confirmed (well, it's on their myspace anyway) as wednesday night support.

oh, be still my beating heart :(

the 'holocaust' bit at the show on the 20th was like an avalanche fucking an earthquake.

like an avalanche fucking an earthquake.

oh my god that is the best description ever.

Do NOT use those squishy plugs pictured upthread. I had to have half of one extracted from damn near my middle ear, and they aren't that effective to start with. Flents Quiet Please! Foam (Latex Free) Plugs are much better for most uses, incl. earripping blockbuster movies, but they wouldn't work for live MBV; see if there isn't still a thread or two at least still to be resurrected on ILE, where they talk about some good, sometimes professional-use earplugs, like for airhammer operators.

I don't get ebay. 19 hours left and someone ups the bid from $52 to $100. Is that secretly the seller or something?

Went to the Manchester show last night and it was pretty much everything that could possibly be hoped for. I saw them on the Isn't Anything and Loveless tours all those years ago and whilst they were (obviously) ace they were pretty ramshackle compared to the, frankly, fucking gorgeous noise machine they are now. I wonder if PA and mixing technology has finally caught up with what they were trying to do back then? 'Cause last night was loud as all hell but still managed to bring out all the beauty and subtlety in the songs (To Here Knows When was a real highpoint). From a fanboy viewpoint it looked like Kevin was playing some of the high melody lines (eg. I Only Said),which they had the flautist for last time out, on his guitar. They managed to play the "middle eight" of YMMR for just over 25 minutes, which given the pained expression on Colm's face by about 20 minutes in must be just about the limit of how long they can *actually* play it for. It's a cliché to call it cathartic, but I certainly went through a range of emotions whilst they were pummeling away from laughter to end-of-days style shit.

I got tickets and went along for nostalgic reasons as much as anything, and really had no idea what to expect but was honestly blown away (as were all my friends), it makes you wonder what they could have done in the intervening years if Kevin had got his act together, and for a band that have not (presumably) rehearsed or played much they were incredibly tight and focused. There's some serious Dorian Gray antics going on too because they do look exactly the same as they did in '92. It might just be proof of the benefits of doing bugger all for 16 years of course.

On a practical note, if you have earplugs wear them. I only put them in for YMMR and my head has been ringing and whooshing today like a fucker. In total agreement about the £23 t-shirts complaint upthread, a massive ripoff. And the drip release of the tickets and dates is pure racketeering, one of my friends ended up selling two spares to a tout for a fiver, who dubbed them "My Bloody Waste of Time".

So that's where Paul Owen ended up!

That's a great review Bill A. Can't wait till the Paris concert!

Here, you can download the entire 13th of June London concert.