their tour is almost upon us now and im bloody excited! i saw them play a secret rehearsal gig last Friday at the London ICA and they were amazing. the loudest gig ive ever been to, and one of the best of the year so far. the setlist was:

Only Shallow
You Never Should
Honey Power
I Only Said
Cigerette In Your Bed
Thorn
Nothing Much To Lose
To Here Knows When
When You Sleep
Slow
Blown A Wish
Soon
Feed Me With Your Kiss
Sue Is Fine
??? (edit: You Made Me Realise)

 i didnt get the name of the last song. 'Only Shallow', 'Feed Me With Your Kiss', 'Sue Is Fine' and 'When You Sleep' were the hgihlights for me. pity they didnt play 'Come In Alone' and 'What You Want', but it was great anyway.

'Loveless' probably one of the most stunning guitar albums ever made. it essentially reinvents the guitar again with all the distortion and FX pedals. its noisy but melodic, heavy without sacrificing tune and is upbeat without being over-the-top and melancholic without ever bringing you down. its a work of brilliance. more people should get into this band. 'Isnt Anything' (their debut proper) is also a really good album.

 ...yeah going to see them in manchester.  I can't really afford to stay somewhere etc in london, thats why I am selling my other tickets.. I actually had some ticks for the saturday as well, was mean to go with someone for those, but like I said can't really warrant seeing them twice, nor can I really afford to stay in london plus train ticket down etc... but yeah can't wait...

 edit: oh and if anyones interested heres a download of their show at the ica...

 having been to te last three nights (and am going tonight as well), i can safely say that its definately worth the money and effort. its a pity you've had to miss out on some shows, theyve been really aamzing on all the occasions ive seen them. pity the crowd (Friday aside) has been pretty dead. it seemed to be full of poseurs there for the sake of it (people who want to be able to say 'ive seen My Bloody Valentine live!').

 very very loud. theres a slight ringing in my right ear at the moment. 3 nights standing on the right hand side probably doesnt help. i'll definately have to switch to the left hand side tonight. those earplugs are looking more appealing to be honest, even if it makes you look like a softie.

theyve been switching the setlist about from night to niht and from the ICA gigs which adds some variaty. not a massive amount though. they opened with 'I Only Said' instead of 'Only Shallow'. and i dont think theyve played 'Honey Power' at the Roundhouse yet either. definately up there with The Cure, Goldfrapp and Portishead as amongst the best gigs of the year so far!
 

Superb. I am going to watch them on the Friday Night at Benicàssim minus the ear plugs! Hope they do Soft As Snow (But Warm Inside). God I love that song so much.

 ...I'm a bit of shoegaze nerd, so yeah I would have liked to see them in london too - but I had a look around and it just ended up too expensive to stay in london for what it was, and I didn't really know anyone I could have borrowed a couch for the night frome either. I have already brought some reuseable earplugs lol... been meaning to buy them anyway for going to clubs and stuff, but never got round to it... but yeah don't really want to end up like rachel goswell of slowdive fame with burst eardrum and a all (ouch!).

anyway sunday in manchester should be blast... its not often a band you truly like from the past reforms - can't wait to hear the new album when it comes out, although I don't have high hopes for it...

JadineP_1983:

Superb. I am going to watch them on the Friday Night at Benicàssim minus the ear plugs! Hope they do Soft As Snow (But Warm Inside). God I love that song so much.

 they havent played that yet, not even at their rehearsal gigs so its unlikely it'll appear unfortunately. still, theres more than enough oher stuff that'll keep you happy! last night's gig (Monday) at the Roundouse was probably the best of the lot! the atmosphere was amazing, everyone was moshing and headbanging like crazy. the atmosphere at the other dates were generally muted. the gig was being recorded for TV or something, so it mustve been the crowd playing up to that. or maybe weekday's just ween out the poseurs who are there for the sake of it! im slightly disappointed they havent played any new material (considering how long theyve had to work on it!), but im sure that will come.

 theyve got a remastered and an alternate version of 'Loveless' (double CD) in the pipeline apparently. it shouldve been released by now to coincide with the tour, but Shields hasnt finished the sleeve notes yet. word has it the new album will be ready by around November/December with another tour for spring next year and then they'll split up again.
 

I've been in London for the past week, but unfortuantly was not able to get tickets in time. Majorly gutted. Hope everyone had a good time who went. I'd have liked to have gone just to see how (if it's at all possible) they managed to recapture the sound of the record live. Oh, and did they end with a section of pure psychadelic white noise like they used to?

 ^^aaah... you should have checked the board earliar. I had two tickets for the sunday for sale @face value, as I couldn't go.  ah well, you'll hopefully plenty more opportunities to catch them...deffo worth the effort... can't wait till sunday in manchester - anyone going?

broccoli broccoli:

I've been in London for the past week, but unfortuantly was not able to get tickets in time. Majorly gutted. Hope everyone had a good time who went. I'd have liked to have gone just to see how (if it's at all possible) they managed to recapture the sound of the record live. Oh, and did they end with a section of pure psychadelic white noise like they used to?

when i first heard them on record i thought it was rough around the edges and had a certain rawness to it compared to other music which was much more polished, but hearing it live is soemthing else altogether. it is so much more raw and aggressive live, and Colm and Debbie form an amazing rhythm section which i feel doesnt quite translate on record. its a brillaint experience. very very loud. yeah, they still ended with the noise of 'You Made Me Realise'/'The Holocaust'. it is out of this world. to alot of people, its just pure pointless noise, but when you listen to it carefully its much more structured than that (besides, all music is noise isnt it? just structured in different ways).

 
as Monkey said, you couldve had his Sunday ticket. judging by eBay and Scarletmist there were lots of people who had extras for all of the 5 London dates. if you get a chance, check them out at the festivals. theyre playing Bestival (Isle of Wight in September) and Electric Picnic (Ireland in late August-early Sept). im most likely going to Electric Picnic. if not, like i said theres alot of chatter on MBV forums about one last tour to coincide with the new album before they split up again.
 

 ...wtf was with that noise at the end? what was the point? instead of playing some more songs they stud there strumming white noise for like half an hour. the gig was ok, but not the best gig I've been to, but not the worst... but really wtf, with the noise?

monkey.:

 ...wtf was with that noise at the end? what was the point? instead of playing some more songs they stud there strumming white noise for like half an hour. the gig was ok, but not the best gig I've been to, but not the worst... but really wtf, with the noise?

 i guess its the band indulging their avant-garde side. it took me a while to appreciate, but its actually quite good! you can feel the sound vibrating all through you, and i guess thats part of the experience. Kevin Shield's said that its supposed to be nauseating. i find the response from the crowd more interesting though - you get old-school metaller fans head banging away like mad or fans unfamiliar with it covering their ears or even leaving.

 ^^maybe...but my brother didn't get it either, he was a bit irritated by it as well and his taste can be a little less assuming.  I think a few people did leave, and I was tempted to, but I was sure they were going to do something in the next minute or so, and that became half an hour! lol... I did like the rush of the vibration throught your body, but I dunno, I had musician earplugs in - maybe thats the problem, cos it reduces the volume down to safe level, so perhaps thats why I didn't feel sick.  I still think half an hour is big waste, apparently its meant to be the 40secs of one of the end of the sonds repeated for that length of time...