Last night My Bloody Valentine played the Palladium Ballroom in Dallas. For those familiar with MBV, you were there, you know what happened, and you’ve might have seen it before, even though it’s been years. For those of you who aren’t, you’ve heard the name, you’ve probably heard a few songs pop on your Modest Mouse channel on Pandora, and you know they were the first “shoegazer” band, and you respect them for what they have been able to do for their genre of indie music. I fit in the second category.

A quick precursor to my day yesterday… I woke up to an email telling me I had won tickets to MBV. (a quick shout out to www.indie-verse.com – a CBS Radio station in Dallas that streams and plays on 105.3 on HD2 receivers) I didn’t have concrete plans, I had a healthy respect for the band, and I kinda got jazzed about it. I’ll happily admit that I was not the biggest fan. I’ll happily admit that I had to dig into my music library to find the 4 songs I had downloaded at some point in the past, probably when I was getting into either Neutral Milk Hotel or Stereolab or The Jesus and Mary Chain. I’ll readily admit that I walked into with zero pretense. And I’ll readily admit that I had to do some searching to find out that the band reunited in 2008 after an 18 year break in performances. I’m so grateful that it happened that way.

The first thing that you notice at a MBV show is energy. There’s a blast of sheer power coming off the stage that hits you the moment the show begins. Kevin Shields begins to strum and the distortion begins. Bilinda Butcher begins to sing and the distortion continues. Debbie Googe changes the bass line slightly and the distortion intensifies. Colm Ó Cíosóig tweaks the down beats and the distortion breathes all on its own. MBV is loud. MBV is power. MBV is rock and roll in absolution.

The most striking thing to me was the dichotomy between the presence of the band and the energy coming from the stage. My ears are ringing, my eyes are being attacked by light, and they aren’t even moving. There’s a delicate balance between subtle and boring. MBV walks that line. Maybe there was a conscious decision a long time ago to use the music is entirely speak on its own. Maybe there was need to utilize tools of technology to create the visceral feeling generated in a live performance. Maybe it’s freeing for them to not have to move. Anyway you look at it, they have the most intense show I have ever seen and they didn’t move. And I thought shoegazing was reserved for emo kids who hate their parents.

The thing that kept coming back to me was that I was watching a jam band. They use the vehicle of a pop song to achieve the symphony of a long, intense jam. They play off each other. They allow the music to guide the evening. They go where the music takes them, while simultaneously controlling every sequence, every note and every body in the building.

The show is so physical that it becomes emotional. The intensity of sound and light is so strong that you are forced into a guttural, emotional reaction. This is not for everyone… but for those who allow MBV to control you for a couple hours, you don’t regret it.

The final song, which has grown in legend, was “You Made Me Realize” which transitions into a seemingly ends repetition of white noise and visual chaos. The vocals the entire evening we drowned out by distortion and seamless transitions between slight variations of cords. However, “You Made Me Realize” is just the vehicle for MBV’s ultimate assault on the audience. It’s not about the words. It’s not even about the band. It’s about the physical and emotional attack of the music. The song transitions into a cacophony of energy and sensation. They audience is forced into feeling the music in every inch of their body. The bass rattles your bones, the highs pierce your ears, the room shakes. It feels like standing in the middle of the ocean during a hurricane. Wave after wave of raw powerful sound hit you while simultaneously being visually battered by lighting and video streams. There are repeated crescendos that never seem to come down. The building sounds like we’ve accidentally ended up underneath the space shuttle as it’s taking off. It’s beautifully terrible.

I saw probably 50 people grabbing their ears and walking outside out of sheer pain. The song prior I decided to take my ear plugs out. I was told “that’s like fucking with 3 condoms on” so I acquiesced. I braved the assault with no protection. While I still feel it today, I don’t regret it. Audible suicide, but I don’t regret it. This was why I was there. I have never in my life felt music as deeply as I did last night. And I want to clarify that this was music. Music is “an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color.” This sheer white noise assault on us was the epitome of music… even if it was pure noise.

Kevin Shields told the Dallas Observer that this would be the last incantation of the band. He wants to take things in a different direction. This was the last opportunity for MBV to torture the ears of Dallas. The was the last time that MBV will ever gloriously assault us with their 15 minutes of white noise to climax an already abrasive and physically violent show. And you should have been there. My ears are still ringing. I could barely walk coming out of the venue. I went to a bar afterwards and couldn’t even drink because I was so exhausted and beaten up by what I had just seen heard felt. For me, this was a chance of a lifetime and I didn’t even know it until it was over. I’ve never been so emotionally wrecked after a live show. Thank you, MBV. If we never meet again, just know you’ll never be forgotten

MP3:
My Bloody Valentine - “Soon”

RELATED POSTS: