My Bloody Valentine

[cormaic]

When the drums started for Soon I almost lost it, that was so cool.

[suprefan]

I saw them in Santa Monica in October, and while they were wonderful as ever at Coachella, trust me, they were NOWHERE near as loud as they were at the Civic Center. Didn't need the earplugs this time around.

It felt louder in Santa Monica because the sound had nowhere to go except bouncing off the walls. You were encased in it. Yesterday all of the sound went into the air and thats it. Most people should be glad about that, it saved em a bit. 130db is still 130db anywhere, its just a matter of the setting.


To Here Knows When as filmed by me. Hit HQ when it finally becomes available, audio will sound even better.

[chaoticonia]

amazing.

and i also loved watching the people look around scared shitless during the holocaust. bahahahaha

[venturas90sgirl]

One of the most amazing sets I've ever seen. I've never been entranced by so much noise. That was definitely the set of the festival for me.

[TheStranger979]

I saw them in Paris this last summer and they were even louder than at the civic center. The girl next to me was literally throwing up during the Sonic Holocaust. The people working the venue (at the Zenith of Paris) cut the power in the middle of noise solo. Kevin Shields was infuriated and told them it was in the contract that they play for a certain amount of time. MBV came back on stage and Kevin said, "Right. Back to where we were." They finished the noise and finished the song. It was incredible.

[obzen]

i thought they sucked serious ass and wish the Yeah Yeah Yeahs had their time instead. in fact, i just wish they weren't there. everyone looked pretty morose during their set, not the finale one wants to a 3 day music extravaganza.

^
Shut the fuck up,and act natural.





My Bloody Valentine fucking blew that motherfucker up last night,especially at the end-i just stood there watching while thinking what the band members had going on in their heads while proceeding to gang rape the ears of the masses-they were probably thinking,"take that conflicting artists and naysayers of Coachella"-i was fucking laughing my ass off after that went on for some 10+ minutes-

they even threw in some grindcore,lolZ

pure spinal tap

I WILL NOT FOGET THEIR SET

[HandBanana]

All I wanna say is: perfection.



(tho her vocal mix coulda been more prominent)

[jjbaldwi]

In MBV's defense, shoegazing is called that for a reason. In some of the audience's defense, I don't think they realized they were getting themselves into a sonic holocaust.

Sonic holocaust.... I'm gonna sample that one; that's fuckin great

[TallGuyCM]

To Here Knows When as filmed by me.

Ha, supre you always joked about how much it would suck to stand behind me, and how you were glad you didn't have to, but judging by your video you must have been no more than 5 or 6 people to my right. Because that was very similar to my view, and that guy that kept holding up that tall light stick thing was just to my upper right.

[suprefan]

Yep, that guy kind of screwed my night up, but I made up for it. Also when YYY's cleared out, I made it a point to get a clear view with a few short people on front of me and not too many tall ones that could block.

[cormaic]

The same thing that happened with Morrissey/Paul also happened with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs/MBV:

After the former's sets finished, a lovely current of people began to exit the stage, which I was able to ride all the way up to the front, no camping required.


The lesson here: Never camp out for acts! See who you want to see! you'll probably get a good spot anyways!

[obzen]

All I wanna say is: perfection.



(tho her vocal mix coulda been more prominent)

this is true

i like her style though,zen-like,almost menacing
and that red dress,her high heels,that hair...
i love a pretty woman with a guitar...

[suprefan]

Wrong, you can camp out for acts, its just a metter of knowing the audience and figuring you can get an even better spot than you originally had.



and the vocal mix was fine, its always like that, even on the records. The one thing was you could hear it even clearer than on their solo shows.

[obzen]

vocal mix was fine, its always like that, even on the records. The one thing was you could hear it even clearer than on their solo shows.

she couldve been turned up just a little though-Mastodon had PA problems too-its not like all sound techs are on point all the time,they were still fucking with the mix as MBV they opened

[suprefan]

No, like I am saying, its mixed that way normally. On thursday at The el Rey and at SMC, it was like the same, so why would it be changed?

[paulb]

MBV was my #2 act for the weekend!!! THEY WERE PERFECT!!!! I was right in front of the screen on the right barricade... it still wasnt too loud...I wanna see a solo show now... I wanna catch the Seattle show next week if possible. They seriously kicked so much ass. I was headbanging my ass off. I loved the 15min holocaust right into that final jam, i have no idea how they planned that so perfectly, but it was such a bad ass ending...

[obzen]

No, like I am saying, its mixed that way normally. On thursday at The el Rey and at SMC, it was like the same, so why would it be changed?

i know this,but whatevs...great show in any case event

[pqhooligan]

I documented plenty of terror, in HD. Full YMMR in Standard and High Definition hitting youtube by tonight I hope. Also filmed To Here Knows When. Coming soon.

can't wait for this!

[madmermaid]

Absolutely mind-blowing. Here is what I wrote after seeing this show:

I had always liked My Bloody Valentine, so I was looking forward to seeing them for the first time. We got there shortly after they started and lay down on the grass. I thought the show was good, but I wasn't paying attention--tired from the sun, mind on overdrive trying to work out how we were going to see the Cure, Throbbing Gristle and Etienne de C. at the same time.

It wasn't until we decided to leave ten minutes early (food) that they fully captured my attention. As we walked away, all three guitarists began continually strumming using all six strings. This, on top of a reverberating sound which I assume was created by pedals, capturing the sound and building on it, resulted in the thickest, richest shroud of noise ever to reach my ears. But it was so much more than just noise. Sure, if someone happened to walk by at that moment, distracted by their own thoughts, it might sound like just that--a whole lot of loud-as-fuck noise. But at this moment, I turned back and stared as they stood surrounded by white smoke, the noise itself seeming like a cloud surrounding us so densely that it felt like a wall.

I've heard concerts so loud that they overstimulated my senses with the rapid-fire, brassy guitar notes continually piercing my eardrums until they eventually left me feeling jittery and unable to sleep for the rest of the night. This show, on the other hand, had the opposite effect. The sound was so thick that it pushed everything else out of my mind like an unexpected enema. It was like MBV had detoxified my sense of hearing. For this reason, it was extraordinarily peaceful. An image came to my mind of being surrounded by a war zone--bombs going off, sirens wailing, but we were in an isolated safe spot, inside a shelter of sound. It reminded me of the amazing strength and power that our minds have to defy fear.

I was struck by the irony of loud noise causing peace, and at that moment I felt like I began to get it--the excitement surrounding MBV, the complexity of shoegaze in general, and the rich inner world of something like noise that may seem at first like nothing, or like an annoyance, but reveals something amazing and valuable to you if you open yourself to the experience.

The noise seemed to go on for 10 minutes. It was mainly a flat sound, but every minute or so, I would hear a subtle screeching noise. Any other time, a screeching noise would create uneasiness or at least an awareness of its position as a conventionally unappealing sound. But this particular screeching defied that annoyance and appeared as more of a gentle artistic etching on a wall of sound, or a road map through its sequence. Time seemed to stop, or slow down, as the major shift in my sense of hearing turned my perspective upside down.

The entire time, I stood in awe, eyes tearing up, absolutely captivated, resisting moving one finger lest I break the spell, and overcome with a sudden tremendous respect for MBV.

Finally, what seemed like a lifetime later, they slipped right back into the song without missing a beat! I think my eyebrows raised halfway up my forehead. I turned to my boyfriend, who had the same expression on his face, and we exchanged what I'd call "speechless exclamations".

Up until the end of the show, I thought it was good, but I felt mildly disappointed--it didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary. But after this experience, I realized that it was my fault. I hadn't been giving it my all, my mind was somewhere else. But once I switched on and became more generous with my attention, they rewarded me with the most richly satisfying, revealing ten minutes of my Coachella history.

And to think that I was seconds away from missing it! Moral of the story: the more complex the experience, the more attention required to get something out of it, but it might end up being all the more rewarding. Luckily, I caught myself just in time, and MBV have earned the highly coveted title of "Most Fucking Incredible Performance of Coachella 2009".

COACHELLAAAA!

[sonnyboy11]

the more complex the experience, the more attention required to get something out of it

Well said. I wish more people understood this. Instead that type of thinking often gets chalked up as an elitist attitude. But I woke up one day and realized how much good music I had allowed myself to miss out on, simply because I was an impatient, narrow-minded twit. I have since worked hard to correct that fault.

[Memorial_07]

I didn't use the earplugs once.

I chucked 'em into the crowd during the holocaust and loved every second of it.

Just wish they'd played Blown A Wish

[alternapop]

get yourself a pair of these... you'll thank me in 20 years. i wish i had them when i was in high school and college pushing my way up to the front.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...ternapopcom-20

[humanoid]

I didn't puke this time! YAY!

Yay!!!!

[suprefan]

MBV was my #2 act for the weekend!!! THEY WERE PERFECT!!!! I was right in front of the screen on the right barricade... it still wasnt too loud...I wanna see a solo show now... I wanna catch the Seattle show next week if possible. They seriously kicked so much ass. I was headbanging my ass off. I loved the 15min holocaust right into that final jam, i have no idea how they planned that so perfectly, but it was such a bad ass ending...

If you were farther back, it wouldve been louder for you. Frequencies need distance to build up to have potential. Stand 20 feet farther and it would hit you like a brick. My body literally vibrated at the Thursday show btw.

[kitt kat]

here's a portion of soon....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EndtV2VIbzs

and yeah, i didn't expect the sound to come out...but i was so close! yay! (not as close as the SMC show, but still.)

[seyrnon]

the entire time they were playing I could barely even comprehend how amazing it was.
the musical halocaust almost felt like they had reached a golden note in music and didn't want to let it go. it felt like it was too much for our ears to understand the beauty of this one ongoing sound and they wanted us to understand it so they kept holding it
after they finished I actually just walked around on my own unable to think of anything really, just how beautiful of a show it was
then I snapped out of it and went to see the jesus cube

[Mr.Nipples]

there were several fuck ups during their performance, most of them happened during the opening track, im really happy they were sorted out in time for 'to hear knows when' and 'you made me realize'. hands down the loudest performance in coachella's history...

[Weatherman]

I had earplugs on during most of MBV (like every other band I've seen live the past several years, I'm watching out for my ears now) but the instant the end shrieking began I took those fuckers off. I could never describe how it sounded like at all, it was a pure punch.

Didn't get to stay through the whole noise though cause my friends wanted to get spots for Public Enemy. And LOL, people were fucking rushing to that stage so quickly.

[Mr.Nipples]

one of the best moments of the weekend: kevin staring at the front row of cure fans 7 or so minutes into the holocaust

[Kid B]

They kicked my ass.