The Return Of My Bloody Valentine

I might shell out for some earplugs. I went to a punk gig in a small room in Brighton a couple of weeks ago and the opening band were playing with constant screeching feedback and I couldn't handle it, probably getting too old or the tinnitus is getting to me. Mind you I'd eaten an edible before I went there and misjudged the dose a bit so I was really stoned to the point where I thought I might have to leave at one point which might've had something to do with it. I got earplugs from the bar for that one but they were free so pretty crappy.

Apparently, I am going to evaluate two undergrad student presentations on the recording and engineering of Loveless today. 90s revival is no joke.

Dammit. I fucked up my joke.

http://i43.tinypic.com/2h3rdkx.jpg

Don't touch it!
Well I wasn't going to touch it, I was just pointing at it.
Well... don't point! It can't be played.
Don't point, okay. Can I look at it?
No. no. That's it, you've seen enough of that one.

I saw Mogwai in 1999 and they weren't that loud at all tbh. That was at Glastonbury festival though so outdoors and probably subject to noise level restrictions. I think Like Herod was kinda loud.

hmm I'm actually misremembering slightly, saw my posts from 10 years ago upthread and I only wore earplugs for YMMR, the rest of it I didn't because I am so hard. Of course now I have tinnitus in my left ear, although I went to the doc last week and that might just be because I have massive amounts of compacted wax in it. They tried to syringe it out this morning but it wouldn't budge. Either way I should probably wear earplugs more often. TMI etc
― Colonel Poo, Friday, 27 April 2018 15:11

I'm never going to watch them again just in case. I didn't have ear plugs when I saw them at the Roundhouse ten years ago and my ears were buzzing for a day or two afterwards and I was worried they would be permanently fucked.

dinosaur jr are the loudest band ive seen
ive seen mbv too, maybe because it was in a butlins the sound was to the usual level

*wasnt

SUNN 0))) def the loudest I've seen, though the rib-rattling low frequencies may have messed with my perception of volume

That's the same vibe I got with High On Fire. It's often the low end that gets you. MBV, though, obv. they get more of the seasick thing going on, so you've got gut-rumbling but also all these shifting treble frequencies and stuff.

I did come across an article that said MBV weren't that loud at an ATP, with the Buzzcocks actually being louder at the same event, maybe that was the Butlins you went to nxd?

yeh probably - it was an atp

saw sun o)))) at one too & they were p loud!

unable to get tix yesterday or today to Oakland - major sad face

yeah! that's exactly what i mean! being exposed to the sheer physical presence of that sound for so long genuinely has a mindbending effect!

― Mahogany Loggins (bizarro gazzara), Friday, April 27, 2018 9:55 AM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

being in the ENT clinic for a couple of weeks has made me better appreciate how noxious this noise exposure can be. wear earplugs, everybody

it honestly sounds *better* with earplugs

the only problem is if you sing along with earplugs in, all you can hear is your awful voice

i will probably deploy the earplugs for the ymmr extremo-noise section, but i will probably not sing along

MBV with their own system these days is loud but balanced. Which gives it huge apparent volume but I'd say it's less likely to damage ears than a bad mix on a small shitty PA or standing in front of a guitar amp.

Still, absolutely use proper ear plugs!

I've seen both a launch of a Saturn V and a full-afterburner SR-71 fly-by. Front row for MBV's last minute Coachella 2009 warm-up at the El Rey was comparable for sonic power-into-physical beatdown. Someone in the venue had a seizure during the soundcheck which definitely upped the excitement of the crowd. Moths to flame, etc. All warnings upthread still apply.

No other band (including the usuals who turn up on these lists going all the way back to the 5-piece Black Flag) has come close. M-a-y-b-e the Ramones in '86.

Saw MBV with Dinosaur Jr opening in the 90s and that was amazing and intense and - yes - truly fucking loud.

Same. They were way louder in the 90s.

i saw them at the ogden in denver which was loud but not bruising, then at the truly dire roy wilkins in saint paul, which had quite an immense sound system and was basically a glorified concrete basketball arena so the cacophony got truly psychedelic, as mentioned. after the show my back and neck hurt because i was tensing up during the noise so much. can't wait to do it again

seeing mbv live is one of the more genuinely psychedelic experiences i've ever had, honestly

― Mahogany Loggins (bizarro gazzara), Friday, April 27, 2018 1:47 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I remember reading an interview with Kevin Shields years ago in which I got the impression that he thinks of MBV as being a psychedelic band more than anything else. So this makes a lot of sense.

As for earplugs, I sprung for a set of custom fit musician attenuators which I can never stop recommending enough. I was a bit apprehensive at how they would hold up against MBV when I first saw them 10 years ago, but I will still swear to this day that when I took out my earplugs at the end of the show, my ears still felt as fresh as they did going into it.

I saw them shortly after loveless was released in 1992? in the ancienne belgique brussels and it was loud - esp. ymmr at the end - but i didn't wear ear-plugs and i thought it was ok for my ears. Last week-end though i heard a band in berlin - die nerven - which really hurt my ears (i still feel a pain inside my ears). i have never worn ear-plugs at concerts but i will take them with me next time. When die nerven got loud i thought it was a physical attack and hoped they would stop but they didn't and got even louder. I literally had the feeling they were just about to destroy my ears and i couldn't do anything about it. Which was wrong as i could have run away but i did not think about it. The feeling i had was that someone was piercing my ears with a needle. Fortunately it wasn't as bad in the end but i am still not sure if i did not carry away a permanent damage.

When I first went to live gigs, (let's pick The Undertones on the Positive Touch tour) I was quite shocked at how loud it was and had to fashion earplugs from bits of chewed toilet paper.

Is it a case of getting used to it, or is it that its nowhere near as loud these days, but I can't remember a gig where I thought wow that's a bit loud in the last ten to twenty years.

I maintain it's about the standard of PAs and competence and sensitivity of FOH engineers. PAs have broadly speaking continued to improve. The worst have always been cheap and knackered systems in smaller venues, or being too near to irresponsibly loud backline.

Valentines at The Roundhouse in 2008 generated an astonishing amount of apparent pressure and immersion during YMMR; that's achieved with at least some semblance of safety by using the full frequency range proportionally.

that was the gig that brought down Our Great Leader wasn't it

One of those nights, yes I think about that. I think I was at a different one.

seeing MBV is absolutely worth 70 dollars or 100 dollars, what is wrong with you people

Managed to get GA tix for their show in Oakland finally. $50 ticket price - $15 cheaper than when they came to SF 9 years ago.

While we're reminiscing here I will never forget standing center of the floor at the old "New" Ritz in NYC ( former Studio 54), 1992 (Pavement and Superchunk opened), during YMMR with the crowd slowly dwindling around me as that beautiful rush of sound just whooooshed over me and in me and Colm just went off like a magic robot on his drumkit. Truly incredible.

I've been to loads of gigs where the volume got loud but seeing MBV a decade ago was so much more intense because of the way it got loud. It's not just mangled guitar feedback, it's thick bass sounds and trebly slippage and the whole thing is diorientating in the way that music that's simply loud isn't.

While we're reminiscing here I will never forget standing center of the floor at the old "New" Ritz in NYC

I was there too. That end chord sure was long. Also, Gary Young is a great drummer but needed to talk less. We didn't need him babbling between every song.

i'm having a heart attack right now:
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/files/2018/05/my-bloody-valentine-protomartyr.jpg

i saw them two out of the three shows they played for Loveless. it was at the Roxy on Sunset in Hollywood. have not seen them since and this is the make up show for FYF.

Yeah I was at one of those Roxy shows. You missed the Palace show that year? That was great and then some. Last time I saw them was the first reunion swing through in 2008, so let's see what the past ten years have done...

At some point they're going to have to update those promo photos.

i did miss the Palace show. not sure what happened, i probably thought that i saw them twice already that year and past. probably was thinking i will see them when they put out a new album, lol.

xpost

i just bought four tickets to this Shrine show on July 22, 2018. got three friends to go with me. so happy right now!

I'll be in Oakland!

how is the Shrine as a venue?

xpost -- nice, which night?

I'll be at one of the Chicago dates. I'm so out of the live music loop in my dotage that it didn't even occur to me that this is a Big Deal. I just assumed they'd been performing all the time since they reformed.

Yeah they were busy for a couple of years there, and then did tour mbv a bit via festival appearances here that year, but then they went to ground. Given the rapturous reception Slowdive in particular has received, there's an audience totally primed to see MBV now; not surprised they sold out the first date up here and put up a second, and at a pretty good sized venue in the Fox Theatre.

I got Friday night.

how is the Shrine as a venue?

despite seeing hundreds of shows either in Los Angeles or San Francisco, i have yet to go to the Shrine. i have asked around and it seems to get good reviews.

have i said how exited i am for this?

Yeah they were busy for a couple of years there, and then did tour /mbv/ a bit via festival appearances here that year, but then they went to ground. Given the rapturous reception Slowdive in particular has received, there's an audience totally primed to see MBV now; not surprised they sold out the first date up here and put up a second, and at a pretty good sized venue in the Fox Theatre.

Sorry for my ignorance but are they coming to NY?

If you mean NYC yeah, playing Hammerstein Ballroom.

Not sure if I'm going to be in either LA or NYC for the MBV shows, but it'll be one of them. MBV outdoors at FYF 2013 was a full-out earthquake tumult. The PA power blew out towards the end of YMMR but the onstage sound was so wide that it didn't really matter. Kids were crowdsurfing, dancing, LA shoe gazers totally amped.

Man, I wish I loved the last album more.