The Return Of My Bloody Valentine

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.

Mbvs last one is the best reunion record I’ve heard.
Slow dives one started out sounding like a dreamy spin on
Streets of Philadelphia but mbv rocked it

Also bee ok is my main man

https://pitchfork.com/news/watch-my-bloody-valentine-debut-new-song-at-meltdown-2018/

Hawkwind

Going to see them at the shrine next month but thankful I got to see them at a venue 1/10th the size a couple years ago.

New song sounds fairly indistinct, but then trying to actually record an MBV gig on your phone... Fairly hopeful this thing will come out in the next month or two though, if the roll-out's anything like the self-titled.

Was looking at seeing the Philly show at the end of the month but two tickets with fees come to over $180 which is just insane. I saw them in 2013 and paid just over $100 for a pair of tickets. I can't justify spending that much so I'm not going. :(

seeing them on Sunday, can't wait. in Los Angeles the ticket were about $60 each, wow at that rip off price.

i paid $100 each for Nine Inch Nails and the Jesus and Mary Chain residency show in Hollywood and felt like that was too much for a general admission show.

anyone here seem them this tour, do they provide ear plugs?

xpost -- it is too much, but in my case I had the money.

Excited for the show on Sunday too! See everyone there.

Anyone familiar with the Oakland opener Lumerians? Worth seeing?

Is the Philly show sold out?? I paid $127 even for 2 tickets

Oh, that explains it, Philly is sold out and the TM site automatically shows you reseller seats which I did not know until just now when I told it not to do that.

I might have paid $127 for two tickets too. Oh well.

Short tour. No DC this time. Old guy me saw em in DC way back when at the old 200 people capacity 930 Club. Loudest show I have ever been to.

Lumerians r great!

heck ya

FWIW, here’s a clip of that new My Bloody Valentine waltz. Doesn’t really do justice to how lovely the melody sounded. pic.twitter.com/2r0jdgkcRV

— connect_icut (@vinylscrobbler) July 18, 2018

this is a different song than the other new one they played btw- i like this quite a bit more

I just profiled Lumerians the other week. Friendly dudes, worth going to see them too.

https://www.kqed.org/arts/13835702/oakland-psych-rockers-lumerians-return-after-four-year-hiatus

And the show tonight was as great as ever.

certainly was - new tune was stellar - was there more than one?