The Return Of My Bloody Valentine

It was interesting for me to be simultaneously 'in' it and analyzing it, but I think that was about the only way I could react, since I was constantly drawing back connections to 1992. If it had been my first show straight up I think I would be where you're at.

In his blog Ned alludes to the this (especially the combo of Spectrum & MBV together) as being a resetting of the clock - both of them being the Year Zero for so many bands that followed in their wake. However, I can't help but notice just how many bands who list MBV and Spacemen 3 in their MySpace profiles completely miss the point - as if all you need for shoegaze glory is 250kg of off-the-rack effects pedals and designer amps. Sure, Shields has the most complex rig I've ever seen on stage anywhere, but it's completely purposeful and not overkill at all for what he's trying to accomplish. Say what you want about the irritations of autistic intensity, but when you finally get the payoff... Holy freaking goddamn shit.

YMMR is difficult for me to articulate in words... I've seen an Apollo Saturn V launch. I've seen the Swans. I've seen Survival Research Lab performances. I once got to see a SR-71 flyby on full afterburner - that gets pretty close to YMMR's total frequency response. Still, there's a lot more going on than just an endless sheet of white noise. It's a structured event with ebbs and flows, an endless acceleration of Shepard Tones (check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_tone), and enough VLF to affect every whale and nuclear submarine on the planet. It's entirely possible that this was all auditory illusions going on in my head.

I walked around a bit and did find some sound nodes in the auditorium (think Pelt's set at Terrastock 2) but most of the time I was concentrating on the sound and mostly kept my eyes closed. There were a lot of shell shocked people outside in the hallway - I can't imagine getting stoned or taking anything heavier to this kind of show.

It's a structured event with ebbs and flows, an endless acceleration of Shepard Tones (check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_tone), and enough VLF to affect every whale and nuclear submarine on the planet. It's entirely possible that this was all auditory illusions going on in my head.

I was wondering about that a bit myself, but I'm pretty sure they were real. Fascinating to note. Wished I had done more direct audience observation but what I saw was varied enough.

Photos I took on the fly are now fully edited into the blog piece, along with a couple of song corrections/updates.

By the way, ATTENTION ANY OTHER BAND WHO'S THINKING OF REUNITING...

The bar has been set pretty goddamn high here. I can't think of any other band who's taken sixteen years off and have come back sounding as vital as the day they left. The Pixies weren't close. Pink Floyd tried after ten years, but they needed twelve people on stage and still missed it. I loved the Verve reunion, but a good part of that was seeing McCabe again. MBV sounds like a phenomenally great band that's getting ready to work on their next album. I hope they do it.

they won't...let's be real...

haha, is everyone still totally skeptical about future MBV plans? i was wondering myself ... is this it? will they become a regular touring act? actually write/record new music? or just disappear into the bliding white light?

blinding

I'm incredibly skeptical. But as for the last option:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3183/2909337572_6c5089a7fd.jpg?

Whoops:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3183/2909337572_6c5089a7fd.jpg

annnnnd they're gone

is everyone still totally skeptical about future MBV plans?

I'm completely skeptical... Even if they did nothing else, I'm just happy that I got a chance to see them.

ML Compton OTM BTW... The sound on the second night was brilliant.

Very noticeable in small details -- the sound of the drums on "To Here Knows When" for instance, but also the sheer clarity of "Soon." Both times in 1992 they didn't quite get that all over precision-point feeling live.

Some more audio background: http://www.audioprointernational.com/features/53/Lose-yourself-in-sound

Brennan has been doing live sound for the last 20 years, working with bands such as Primal Scream, The Cure, Mogwai and many others. Once he was hired for the MBV tour, he began attending rehearsals to pick out the gear that would be used for the live shows. He says: “I started dropping in on their rehearsals and every time I showed up there was a new guitar amp or some other piece of kit, and I could see the whole show building. We ended up using 78 inputs, and that is not being self-indulgent, we have single mics on each amp and there is nothing I can live without.”

With a strict analog-only mandate for the show imposed by Shields, Brennan decided to use the Midas XL4 as it was his board of choice before he started using digital desks. He also revisited the board while working on the final show of The Cure’s tour last year.

...

“I picked out some really tasty Manley valve compressors to use across Kevin’s guitars and the drums as well as a C2 compressor. The Crush button on the C2 gives us the full stereo mix of the drums. I will never mix drums without one of them again.”

Another piece of outboard that has been essential to the tour is a TC Helicon VoicePro. “It is a great bit of kit because it records the vocal at the output stage in real time, processes it and plays it back in real time so they are kind of like vocal doublers,” says Brennan.

...

“Similar to the Dead’s system, we have a few loudspeakers running specific things like Kevin’s guitars, which is essential because they are such quiet singers, and to get the vocals above the music I have to dedicate some speakers to the vocals. The band is extremely loud, but it is essential to get the vocals out there because they are as strong as any Beach Boys or Beatles melodies.

“I have control over every element of the PA, so during You Made Me Realise I can just turn up a few knobs and the mix comes out of every speaker. It is getting pretty interesting now; we are starting to think about surround sound for the live show. I want to start talking to Shields about putting up some speakers in the back and just fucking with people’s heads for a bit.

“Shields wants people to be surrounded by sound; he does not like the idea of the sound being louder in the front than it is in the back of the room. The live environment is mostly generated by what is coming out of his guitars. It starts out at 30 Hertz and goes up to 20 k; that is the full spectrum of frequencies all the time, and I just simply amplify that.

Brennan insists the excessive sound and noise levels during the shows are not intended merely for an added shock factor. “Shield’s has a total plan; it is totally orchestrated. If you really listen, he is playing little parts and little bits and looping them during You Made Me Realise and still keeping that outrageous noise going. He has a master plan of the journey that he wants to take people on sonically. He knows exactly where he wants it to go, and I put in some sub stuff to add to the dynamics of what is going on.

Both times in 1992 they didn't quite get that all over precision-point feeling live.

If I ever get a chance to talk to Shields, that would be my first question... If 2008 state-of-the-art audio tech has caught up to what he was trying to get at in 1992.

i think they'll make a record. they're recording for the rest of this year. i think the configuration of what comes out and when is a bigger question mark than whether it happens or not; they've always wanted to release the old stuff (see buddyhead interview), and there must be enough songs for a new record. their problem wasn't indolence; they could work, but it happened in spasms, and a lot of the time they were spending on loveless was writing the material and experimenting with sounds. we'll see, but i still totally expect to hear something new or new/old next year.

did anyone else hear that isn't anything remaster? listening to that and fondly stroking my t-shirt and memories is exciting enough to keep me entertained for now.

Stop fondly stroking your memories in public

Oh wait

Chris, he should be answering that question for my friend Josh today.

i very much meant stroking my memories.
also: i went to la monte younge's dream house a couple of nights after seeing mbv in ny: kind of similar.

i went to la monte younge's dream house a couple of nights after seeing mbv in ny: kind of similar.

I was thinking of the Dream House also.

one major difference in ymmr 92 cd 08:
1992: only a white strobe with loud white noise, went on forever
2008: full body spectrum noise, lil less than forever, Tons of colors strobes visuals

1992 was waaay more confrontational i.e. mbv I will kill you
2008 was waaay more disorienting i.e. mbv I will die for you

The part with the yellow lights and the squigglies felt very "about to be". I was irrationally thinking I was dying for that part. Combined with bass that was gripping my throat

"about to die" sorry

I liked those squigglies. Especially in the flatline state.

yeh. douglas hart's visuals were generally pretty nice. my favourite thing about the lighting has been walking into the venue and feeling like you're inside the loveless sleeve, if they've lit everything up in hyperpink hues.

as regards noise length then and now: it's gone from being about quarter of an hour to just over half; blown a wish and sueisfine have been bumped to accommodate it. i think the apex of the holocaust last time around was forty minutes. i LOVE people trying to document it, with any existing technology. even adjectives can not record its force.

i think the apex of the holocaust last time around was forty minutes

Thirty-five was what I got at the second 1992 show, so that sounds about right.

did you document the '92 show with similar diligence?

Aside from timing the holocaust section, no; my Marooned essay was only written a couple of years back, relying on my memory of the show.

I wish I had read this thread (or anything about MBV live show) before Thursday nite. I wasn't prepared for the 15 minute assault at the end. I actually was kind of annoyed (plus, having a head cold didn't help). I hope that reaction isn't too blasphemous around here.

Other than that, was totally blown away.

http://thecia.com.au/reviews/c/images/close-encounters-of-the-third-kind-7.jpg

It helps to know.

You guys that actually got to go, and you guys that listened to a 'recording' without checking the tracklisting.

Did you hear the "Dumm Dumm DummTTT" intro and go "oh shit, it's coming now!!"

Yeah, pretty much. Mackro and I exchanged glances and were all "Well, here we go!"

A friend today who works where I normally get breakfast on Saturday says two friends of hers who went both nights said that the first night the holocaust section was just loud but the second night actually made them throw up.

LA Times review and some more photos.

it was like the rock concert equivalent of the debut of the Most Xxtreem Ride Ever at Six Flags

That Brennan fella must be deaf by now.

Yeah, pretty much. Mackro and I exchanged glances and were all "Well, here we go!"

I knew it was on it's way, but I still shouted out "holy shit" when it kicked in

The horizontal lines (projected, moving up and down) during the latter half of the "death" part had my brain seeing all kinds of up and down movement that wasn't actually taking place. The amplified bass and kick drum action throughout the show constantly tickled my nostrils. I was sitting in the back. By the combination of the lights and sound I had intermittent hallucinations of the stage literally quaking from all of the vibration. Awesome show.

i was sitting in the bleachers and actually almost fell asleep during the death chord - it was weirdly soothing. that was also the only time i had my earplugs in, so most of the piercing highs were being filtered out. schlumps observation about the lighting and walking into the loveless sleeve otm, set the mood nicely. 'you never should' was particularly great, i liked how the machine gun snare fill part felt like it was in free time before slamming into that next chord. perhaps free time is a bad choice of words, but it felt like they broke out of the tempo of the song for that part each time it happened. best show i've ever been to

this has been one of the best threads i have ever read, thanks ILM for sharing your experiences!

i saw them twice in Los Angeles back in 1992. didn't think i could do it again but now i'm regretting not going to Santa Monica last Thursday night.

an article on the tour's sucess here: http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003870094
i like this part:

But the stage is now set for more touring, and much bigger paydays, at some point down the road. Riley will only say, "With the success of what they've accomplished, I think they'll consider additional dates in the future." Hogan adds, "It would be foolish to not continue. People want to see more of it."

it does make me curious to know whether this tour really energized the band members or changed the way they feel about being My Bloody Valentine ...

I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt. At this point, they're under no illusions of how Kevin likes to work, let's put it that way.

I do remember that a few years back, in one of the Lost in Translation interviews, he said that when he was asked to do some new songs, ie "City Girl," he said it felt like he was going back to imitate a sound where he wasn't at anymore. Something's changed, obviously -- if I can draw a possible comparison, it reminds me of how the two Bauhaus reunions came about, where the money was a draw from the start but which turned out more to be a starting point than a be-all/end-all.

He told me back in 1995 or whenever it was that the third album was almost ready and the word about the two new albums feels of a piece with that -- the thing to do at this point is to have *no* expectations and just let things happen as they do.

Wow, it's so great to read the experiences of this band filtering across the world. Especially the way it seems to be growing and getting more intense... It makes me want to see it again at the END of the tour, as well as having seen the first night.

(OK, not the actual first night - that would have been the ICA warm up gigs which D went to but I didn't.)

Because, having seen it on the first night, I couldn't imagine it getting any better. But it sounds like it has.

Elvis Telecom consistently OTM about teh feel of the sound.

I do enjoy that I've been able to see MBV close out a tour twice in LA, as M. B. sez, wrapping it up seems to bring the best out of them.

One minor thing I was bummed about -- the T-shirts were all right but nothing stellar. I like my 1992 shirts more!

Yeah, I brought money to buy several t-shirts but didn't pick up any as they were really drab.

I thought the two-tone dark blue/darker blue Glider cover shirt was OK (I bought one)

Yeah, the t-shirts were a bit shite. The scalpers selling bootlegged ones outside the Roundhouse had much better wares.

tell me, are bootlegged concert shirts these days still covered in glitter?...oh, the Nazareth/Jethro Tull/Blue Oyster Cult seizure-inducing togs of yore!

tell me, are bootlegged concert shirts these days still covered in glitter?

It's not glittery, but my "official" Spacemen 3 shirt I bought at the Spectrum show is silver-print on black. It's terrific!

the gray women's glider shirt was pretty cool - the pink overtones made it look like it was designed to be seen through 3d glasses. i ended up w/ the turquoise YMMR one, nice color at least.

oh and upthread, the song i was talking about was actually 'nothing much to lose', not 'you never should'

last thing - was anyone else slightly bummed out by some of the main melody lines being sequenced/pre-recorded and not played on guitar? ('i only said', for example) kevin played the woozy lead melody on 'come in alone' and i found myself wishing that they did the same on all of them. 'soon' w/ the spectrum dudes was nice :)