The Return Of My Bloody Valentine

it looks like their setlists have been pretty consistent on this tour.

i'm seeing them for the first time later this week! and i for one am PUMPED about this consistent setlist - for someone like me it is maybe the perfect combo of old songs that i must hear (what you want, soon, when you sleep), my favorite non-album tracks (honey power, thorn, cigarette), material off m b v, and new NEW material. maybe the only thing i'd change is that i'd reaaaaaaally like to hear "(when you wake) you're still in a dream". on some days that's my favorite mbv song, period.

i have to admit that i kind of wish that for just one song (feed me with your kiss) i was going alone. i would say "I have been known to lose my shit during this song" but i would be lying, because no one else has ever witnessed the intensity of me air-listening to that song, alone. but in any sort of company i am usually able to contain myself. still, i am very much looking forward to hearing all of this at such an incredible volume, and if the sound is a bit muddy, i'll just fill in the rest of the sonic details in my miiiind

my review:

there were some personal issues leading up to this show, so i missed a couple of songs. i assumed they would be handing out ear plugs but we were so late that we just wanted to buy a beer and get out there. it was a general admission show and the place was just packed, felt overcrowded. they didn't like where we were standing and told us we had to move in. this is where i lost my three friends, we pushed our way in at the front of the stage. i had a moment where i felt like they rolled up their sleeves and said you are in for a legendary band and we are here to rock you, don't feel that way at most shows but they know there is no-one else out there like them. there was no air on in the place so everyone was just sweating buckets. i was having a great time swaying to the music but it felt like it was getting louder and louder. i stopped moving and plugged my ears, a few moments later someone gave me ear plugs and that was the greatest gesture i have ever got at a live show. though i only was able to plug my ears for about four or five songs i needed it. i think they were slowly turning up the sound as the concert went on. one of my friends said that Kevin had 20 different amps on stage with him. the whole band looked old, Kevin is going bald and gray. Colin, the drummer, is also gray and Debbie looked good with her short hair cut. Bilinda looked young from where i standing and didn't seem to age at all. i know that was not the case but she looked good. overall it was a good show, not my favorite but so happy i got to see them again for the first time since the Loveless tour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWEXSP5U2QM

18. Soon
19. Wonder 2
20. Feed Me With Your Kiss
21. You Made Me Realise

Love this. Teeth clenching finale.

That new song sounds a bit like the mighty Quo’s “Rockin’ All Over the World” in places. I’m quite taken with the idea of Shields as a sort of shoegazing Francis Rossi.

https://youtu.be/t-8K8Hj8bxE

Ha! I wasn't thinking Quo at all - more like Hawkwind. Or maybe MBV covering Hawkwind covering Quo.

We were about 10 people back from the very front and when the band kicks in at 0:30...

https://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/archives/Dude_then.jpg

Now Kev looks like knopfler. or brian may sometimes…

Psyched as fuck to see 'em in a few weeks!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CnPOtdkUkAUNgIo.jpg

do they have a keybs person/guitarist on this tour? I am watching bataclan '13, and man is it amazing to watch him playing that slide-ish part that threads "come in alone." MBV has never had a lineup change to speak of, have they?

Someone tried to leave once, but everyone was just like “what? I couldn’t hear a word you said! My hearing is really bad because of our concerts!” and it all blew over pretty quickly

Fuck

grandpa rockin out

they have had an auxiliary keyboard/guitarist in the past, i think in 2013 and on this current tour

it does not seem that Colm is playing "soon's" pumpin kick drum part at this show. goddamn is this song is glorious.

which is to say it seems the part is generated by the keybslady here…

global i'm going tomorrow nite! very excited to see mbv for the first time

MBV has never had a lineup change to speak of, have they?

They had a bunch of changes in the first 4 years but that was all pre-"Ecstacy"/"Strawberry Wine", a period known for gothy sub-Cramps/Echo/Birthday Party rave-ups. Kevin didn't even sing on the first few EPs/singles.

They had a flute player on the Loveless tour (at least in the UK part of it).

They had a flute player on the Loveless tour (at least in the UK part of it).

Taking a page from the Blind Mr. Jones playbook?

i'm so damn excited for this show tmrw, one of the most special bands to me

I was at the Shrine show too - pretty sure that by the second half of the set at least they were louder than at FYF 5 years ago, which is pretty goddamn loud. Wish I'd brought good earplugs - the ones supplied by the venue muffled everything. Had to take em out now and then just to confirm what song I was hearing. Lots of millennial couples ostentatiously making out around me throughout the show. Some first date that would be.

I hadn't revisited their catalogue for a while before the show, so I forgot some songs and I wanted to confirm which ones I thought were the new ones (their place in the setlist order above seems to line up roughly with what I remember, but I wasn't counting). As far as I could tell, the first new song they played was almost entirely one chord, sort of like a sped-up "Sister Ray," with a rising, hissing sound effect like a pressure cooker on top.

OK yeah, I was right about the first new song. The second was the one where Kevin played acoustic, right?

Hey NYCNative, I don’t have a taker for my extra Philly ticket yet so if you want it for what I paid ($63.50) it’s yours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcS-xu1GrW0

the second new song sounds good

I was at the Shrine show too - pretty sure that by the second half of the set at least they were louder than at FYF 5 years ago, which is pretty goddamn loud.

Ha! For the last 10-15 minutes of that FYF show, the PA was completely dead and what you were hearing was the on-stage sound. Great gig that was!

they have had an auxiliary keyboard/guitarist in the past, i think in 2013 and on this current tour

That's Jen Macro of Hurtling. I liked what I could hear of three-part singing she, Blinda, and Debbie did on "New You"

Been listening to a lot of this band leading up to the show tonight

and I have to say:

MBV is the best album

'who sees you' is the damn fuzziest and wooliest thing i've ever heard live

only tomorrow is stunning still

It's a really good album, strangely underrated I think.

Stoked for seeing 'em Friday in Chicago. Hadn't listened to 2013 mbv record much since year it came out and it is hitting the spot.

show last night was wonderful, the visuals especially. v psychedelic

This show is loud. Even with good quality earplugs it's a wall of sound that you feel in your clothes/hair. Very entertaining show - all these years later, everyone is playing top notch. I saw 'em Valentine's day 92 in Chicago, and they're just as good, if not better than I remember.

https://78.media.tumblr.com/a9332621cd1b7a235cd3ce1af0141bc6/tumblr_ogoyqjF0Xg1qeclgho2_1280.jpg

cool picture imo

i enjoyed the show but wow, you couldn't hear the vocals at all. it's hard for me to imagine seeing them live and not hearing the records beforehand - you'd have no idea that there was this whole vocal melody thing going on

whoops, meant this picture

https://78.media.tumblr.com/9e2b5d4c17e5505de0ee30c5b406b10e/tumblr_ol6l16Joir1v8qexwo1_400.jpg

i like how the hair and guitar strap cut away the body equally

Is that a tumblr of just Bilinda lookin super foxy?

Re: tonight's performance by the band My Bloody Valentine, yes very much indeed yes. The last fifteen minutes felt like another trip through Lynch's atomic detonation. Glorious noise. I was just in awe over how good they sounded.

I thought it wasn't actually as loud as the ample warnings had suggested (really only earplugged a few brief times) but now I'm lying in silence for the first time this evening and, oh, there's the ringing I thought I'd avoided.

gotta say that when I saw 'em in 08 at roseland, I encountered a lot of "gawd this is the loudest show you'll ever go to," from indie rock and dance music people in advance. afterwards it was "oh 'you made me realize" was so crushing," etc etc… it seemed that anyone saying that had never, for instance, been to a Slayer show or to an event involving any of that band's descendants. MBV didn't seem that extreme to me in light of the volume of, oh, the 20 or so prior years of metal shows I'd gone to.

also, the bataclan 2013 video is fascinating to me vis-a-vis who generates what parts, as loveless and MBV by definition do not make it clear what any individual musician is supposed to play in live situations. It seems BB mostly strums chords as ballast when KS needs to play single notes/phrases, and often she doesn't play at all. I can't see from the vid what Deb is doing.

"vocalist" iirc

I've seen Slayer at First Avenue! also Motorhead! Swans!

do I pass yr big boy noise guy test?

Motorhead was super loud in a club setting, probably as loud or a bit louder than MBV, due to old school wall of amps

MBV is really loud and I think it's ridiculous to argue otherwise

Loud and also uncomfortable frequencies (at least to my ears).

@ the Oakland show - always memorable ingesting reactions to Holocaust section. Oakland crowd seemed meditative and accepting. A couple people seemed to go out of their way to make a show of themselves as if reacting on a different emotional plain - maybe they were, I can't say. Denver crowd 5 years ago was incredulous, confused - and favorite part was seeing front stage security eventually turn around in confusion, wondering if they hit a glitch in their life.

Well worth seeing any show @ The Fox in Oakland, just for the record.

fucking great last night at Hammerstein ballroom, a place I had not been to in 13-14 years. Sound is not great in that room and I was mostly near the doors, so if the sound was crushing for people closer to the stage, it was not devastatingly loud.

so so exciting to hear "soon" pumping away, and the 2013 shit was excellent. and it was an alt rock show of the sort that I used to attend a lot but do not any longer. Smashing Pumpkins was basically across the street.

ah damn sounds like fun xpost

extra tickets released yesterday for all the sold-out venues on the current world tour

Lol http://thequietus.com/articles/25475-my-bloody-valentine-two-new-albums

Every picture of them they remain young as ever.

I think they played 2 new songs at the Shrine in July. One had Kevin playing an acoustic and it seemed fine but didn't make much of an impression one way or the other, but I'm not sure that means much - the sonics weren't great at the venue, at least compared to the first time I saw them at FYF Fest 5 years ago, so it was hard to get a gauge on the lower-key material; I hadn't re-listened to the band's prior work in a good 2 or 3 years and everything but a handful of songs from Loveless and mbv was basically a blur for me. The other song that I'm sure was new was a "TV Eye" style rave-up, most of it one chord repeated incessantly, and it was FUCKING AMAZING. Based on that one song alone I eagerly await their next release. I'm pretty much positive it'll emerge sometime in the next half decade. And I hope we hear the one after that before global warming claims us all, but I'm not so fucking sure - Kevin Shields was already talking follow-up EP back when mbv dropped, after all.

re-listened to the band's prior work in a good 2 or 3 years and everything but a handful of songs from Loveless and mbv was basically a blur for me.

you know what, too easy