My Bloody Valentine played Roseland Ballroom

The last time My Bloody Valentine played in the United States I was 4 years old, so I thought I owed it to myself to see their first proper show of their reunion tour. Upon entering the show Monday night I had no idea what I was in for. I was aware that these guys were loud, but I did not know how loud. Well when the ear plugs specifically picked by the band were being handed out at the door, I knew what I had gotten myself into. From the opening notes these guys plowed through what they do best. Epic layers of sound that mixed brutal guitar distortion, hard drumming, and soft dreamy vocals. These legends pioneered the way almost every indie rocker uses distortion and they showed why they do it best. While the volumes were unbelievably loud, the music still sounded pure. This is how their music should be heard; live. While the band had little energy and the only words uttered were "hi" and "thank you" the band did exactly what they set out to do. Despite the fact that the band played to prerecorded samples and people complained of the vocals being too low, this is exactly what I wanted and expected from these guys. The sounds gave new meaning to the term shred and the apocalyptic end of "You Made Me Realise" will undoubtedly go down as one of the most legendary performances of live music. A twenty minute noise jam that had people hunched over and covering their ears. This was a brutal onslaught of music and noise mixed together so well that afterward I heard a fan utter "I couldn't think for the past ten minutes."



Setlist:
I Only Said
When You Sleep
You Never Should
When You Wake
Cigarette In Your Bed
Come In Alone
Only Shallow
Thorn
Nothing Much To Lose
To Here Knows When
Blown A Wish
Slow
Soon
Feed Me With Your Kiss
Sue Is Fine
You Made Me Realise