The Return Of My Bloody Valentine

Who is Tuesday support band?

Sonic Boom again, apparently.
Just talking to someone who was at the Roundhouse last night, he told me they were handing out earplugs? Apparently it's advisable for the noise meltdown at the end.

Yeah, there were free ear plugs available, which I foolishly didn't take advantage of. I still feel a bit deaf in one ear.

OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD!!!!

That was transcendant...

Sorry, but to anyone who just plain IGNORED the signs everywhere saying WARNING EXTREME NOISE AND STROBES, FREE EARPLUGS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST and didn't take advantage, I'm sorry, but you are just plain stupid and deserve to have hearing damage. Did you think they were kidding?

I got special wax earplugs for comfort and was very glad of them. I took them out during You Made Me Realise just to see what it was like, and lasted a second and a half. You're not supposed to listen to that song, you're just supposed to *feel* it. It's just a total body experience, I swear to god, I felt it in my bones.

really pissed off about the support band situation. Le Volume Corbe are just the most mediocre band I've seen in years. Excruciating. And to hear that Spectrum are supporting tonight! Argh! Especially as there was a rumour going round that it was that whole 2/3 of Spacemen 3 thing with Will playing with them - NO, THAT IS FALSE. Had to phone him to check, but no, he's on tour with the BJM in Denmark. It's just Sonic Boom tomorrow. (Dont' know who his current band is.)

But wow. It was well worth the 15 year wait. Lose My Breath! Thorn! SLOW!!!! OMFG!!!!! We were lucky, though, we had front row seats on Bilinda's side. So grateful for that.

To repeat: YOU ARE NOT WUSSY TO USE EARPLUGS. YOU MADE ME REALISE IS *DESIGNED* TO BE EXERPERIENCED WITH EARPLUGS. It's about the physical feeling, not the sound.

(P.s. I saw Carsmile Steve and Ricky T and Cabbage downstairs but had no way of getting their attention save throwing my earplugs at them.)

heh. thanks, kate: your advice is appreciated. 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.

grimly, do you know anyone who can take my pair of 3 july barrowlands tix off my hands? i can't make it up to glasgow anymore (but don't panic, i'm seeing mbv in london on tuesday!)

Those struggling with ear damage may wish to go see this guy instead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y2WFH3KtUY

i'll ask around and see -- don't think it'll be too difficult. can't promise anything, natch.

bugger: didn't know you were planning on coming up. would have been good to meet/drink.

that's a point, actually: who's going to the july 3 show? i'm off all day (yay for my new part-time position!) so will be up for FAPery etc, pre- and post-gig.

xpost, natch. sorry.

thank you sir. 30 squids each innit x

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.