My Bloody Valentine 2008-09-30 Concourse Design Center, SF CA
Posted by: dave in concert, tags: Concourse, loud loud loud, my bloody valentine, noise, shoegaze
I’m not real sure I can review this, even as badly as I review things in general, and do this sort of show any justice.
It was loud, but I’m sure anyone even slightly familiar with MBV will already realize that it was going to be loud. If you’ve only ever heard their recorded music, you might not necessarily get the impression that they’re the loudest band on the planet (no lie, this has been measured!). Yes there are vocals, no you really can’t hear them. Yes everything sounds noisy and distorted, yes that’s on purpose and that’s why we like it. Yes they do the lights like that on purpose where you don’t really see the band as much as they’re putting lights just out on the crowd and the venue. It’s supposed to signify some sort of greater meaning that it’s not about the band, it’s about the music so just enjoy the experience and don’t worry about trying to see the band.
Oh and yes for the last 20 minutes they’re doing to assault you with a sheath of pure noise and distortion. Phil Spector may have made his Wall of Sound famous for layering all sorts of goodness, MBV created the Wall of Noise. It’s not that it’s not sound, but really the impression you get is that it’s glorifying all that is considered to not be Sound and that which is totally undesirable in music. It’s turning the entire idea of music on its ass and saying “this is beautiful too, embrace it” as a sort of grand statement on how we view music. (is this idea too pretentious?). When you experience it (and I don’t think a recording truly does it justice), you’re being bombarded by light, sound and even feeling because the rush of air from the speakers is even as intense as the music itself. It literally (and I’m not making exaggerations here I don’t think) feels like you’re standing a few feet away from a jet plane engine that’s in the midst of takeoff, except for a slight problem: Superman is holding the front of the plane and it can’t move. It’s stuck in a perpetual acceleration, and you are hanging out in the exhaust. It’s louder than anything you’ve ever experienced, the strobe lights and other things are going nuts, and the wind and vibration are just something that I personally have never felt at a show before. Sometimes you get the occasional really bassy moment and you feel it in every part of your body… go ahead and imagine this happening for 20 solid minutes.
And yes, they hand out earplugs at the door. I feel deeply sorry for anyone who didn’t use them or bring their own.
The sound at the venue wasn’t the best to start with, it’s really a terrible place for concerts and I don’t know why they’ve started a big trend of having them there on a regular basis, but the recording sounds good otherwise.
setlist:
- I Only Said
- When You Sleep
- You Never Should
- (When You Wake) You’re Still In A Dream
- Cigarette In Your Bed
- Come In Alone
- Only Shallow
- Thorn
- Nothing Much To Lose
- To Here Knows When
- Slow
- Soon
- Feed Me With Your Kiss
- You Made Me Realise
- download the whole show as a .zip file
- download the show in 24-bit lossless FLAC via Dimeadozen (registration required)
Links:
Entries (RSS)
MBV was one of the best shows I’ve been to, almost better than Coachella (and that’s a lot said), Spectrum was great but MBV stole the night, the only way to explain the Noise Holocaust during “You Made Me Realize” was two jets taking off and stuck on the ground. Loudest show I’ve been to, I’ve never worn earplugs but had to for this show, and during the 20 min White Noise Solo (Noise Holocaust), I hope My Bloody Valentine comes back to America soon, I’ll buy tickets the day they are released just like this show…
I came across you site from a link on dimeadozen.org. Thanks much for the MBV post. I was at the show and your recording is very representative of what I experienced (with no earplugs, regrettably). I plan on checking out your past recordings, the MBV was so good.
[...] Wavesandwires.com has the full My Bloody Valentine show at San Francisco’s Concourse Design Center available for download in mp3 or FLAC lossless quality. Thanks Dave! [...]
thanks so much for this. i have video of ‘soon’ shot with a P&S and of course the sound is destroyed. with your permission i’d like to merge my video and your audio and post to youtube.
Thanks so much! My comparison to the Wall o’ Noise was being inside of a rock tumbler if one was tumbling boulders. Great show. Permagrin for days.
Rob, go for it. I’d love to see it when you get it done!
well its not that great – P&S from 90 feet away, and not zoomed in right. but i held my hands above my head for almost 9 minutes so to not post it would be a crime
also i’m sure the people behind me were pissed… anyway i will work on it this weekend.
hopefully the high quality version will appear at some point, but for now it’s lookin’ pretty lousy:
[...] Download bootleg (.zip file containing MP3s, 150MB) (taken from Waves & Wires) [...]
i found your site thru livejournal mbv comm. thanx a lot for sharing!! i was waaaaaaaaaaaay in the back and too short to see, so i’m really grateful for the vid and pix. ^__^ i just closed my eyes and felt the music for most of that night. haha. thanx again!!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and recording of the show. Since you used my pic, I figured I’d post a link to the full-res version: http://flickr.com/photos/iamdonte/2903653031/in/set-72157607626336532/
Coincidentally, if you click on the picture it does the same thing you just did.
The Chicago show is here if anyone’s interested:
http://thedecibeltolls.com/my-bloody-valentine-in-chicago-full-concert-recording-bootleg-mp3/
and of course only after commenting do i see that you already linked to my flickr account. thanks for that (and again for the recording).
Wow, thanks! I was kicking myself for not bringing my recorder with me. The Dimeadozen site won’t let me register though. Does anyone have a registration and/or could post the torrent file (and/or the FLAC files) somewhere?
thank you!! I went to this show as well as atp and Santa monica and I am so stoked on this recording it’s goood! Thanks man
Traveled all the way from San Antonio for this show. It was, in fact, the first time I ever set foot on and airplane. There was no way in hell I was gonna miss this show. Trust me, there were many obstacles trying to prevent me from going. But I went and was damn glad I did. Thanks for sharing the recording. It sound amazing.
Already saw them twice in 1992 and they actually did “Claire”, their best song . I missed this because I don’t pay for shows and I could not scam in. Oh well. Que Sara Sara…
We already saw the Diamond and Omnia in action and you’ re free to replay the game here. The Diamond surely has a few things to offer over the Omnia (VGA screen, smaller size, 3D acceleration, and magnetic stylus) but it also has its issues here and there to make it a tough call indeed. We do hope however that this review will bring you a little closer to deciding your allegiance.
Super-Duper site! I am loving it!! Will come back again – taking you feeds also, Thanks.
amazing stuff thanx
very helpful post, you should post more stuff related to this.
Hey! Happy Valentines Day everyone. Wish you all to have a very sweet moment with your loved ones.
Aw man, Thanks for this!
We’ve to say that your weblog is pretty cool. If you might add a number of more videos I would really appreciate it!
[...] 現場歌迷高品質收音 [...]
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