By Naheil Qudah
Staff Reporter
That's correct! But think less roses and greeting cards, and more guts and glory. I'm talking about the four-stint reunion tour that self-proclaimed alternative band My Bloody Valentine kicked off this week after performing at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California. They showed Texas some love by hitting up Austin Music Hall in the state capital last Tuesday, April 21 before playing the Palladium Ballroom in Dallas the following night.
You know the band's unmistakable sound, but what about their performance?
Reaching their peak in the early 90's, the band is widely attributed as generating and influencing many of the decade's "shoegazing" bands. The genre got its name from the inanimate nature that its musicians took on when performing and the crowd at the My Bloody Valentine concert took on the same look, standing dumbstruck while the band invaded the room with its experimental tunes and unassuming stage presence.
The band was in a similarly trance-like state: they addressed the audience only once, when guitarist Bilinda Butcher coquettishly waved and replied to an overexcited fan, "We love you, too!" At all other times the members were focused solely on producing a cohesive and emotional sound through their instruments and microphones. The show was a bigger tribute to instrumentation than anything else- you could hardly hear the vocals, but you knew something must be coming out of frontman Kevin Shield's and guitarist Belinda Butcher's mouth movements- so listeners who feel the need to connect with a performer through the sound of their voice would likely be left unsatisfied.
But the hard-hitting music! You know you're going to hear something intense when the doormen issue you earplugs upon entry (true story). The sound was wild, tremendous and fierce and the audience stood motionless, allowing it to pulse through them. World's calmest crowd, or the embodiment of ripping reverence? Answer choice B, please.
And the biggest highlight? Just before the concert ended, the sound approached a volume level that at once petrified and delighted the audience. In the middle of their final song, You Made Me Realise, all four members entered a zone of concentration and delivered an explosive sound that literally shook the room, playing an ear-splitting and vocal-free rhythm that stayed steady for the most part but slowly introduced intricate nuances. A wall of feedback. Hypnosis at its finest. The 13 minute auditory stare game left audience members unsure of whether to headbang or shoegaze. Instead, everyone buried their fingers in their ears, squinted their eyes, contorted their faces and moved forward, loose-limbed and slack-jawed.
When the emotional cacophony was over, a cursory glance around the room showed open-mouthed listeners whose shocked and hungry faces were illuminated by uneven strobe lights. Even more impressive was the way that the band picked up where they left off before the sound-off and completed the melodic song without skipping a beat.
Their performance seemed like something from outer space, and the audience member in front of me astutely hypothesized that this must be what it sounds like to be sucked into a black hole. Loud enough to make the earplugs necessary, vicious enough to make your hair and clothes literally vibrate throughout the entire performance.
More than just a concert, seeing My Bloody Valentine live was a full-body audiovisual experience for spectators' minds and senses.
"What the hell just happened?" I wondered out loud after the show.
"I think I saw Jesus!" the guy on my left exclaimed.
If you ever get a chance to see the band live, don't just take the opportunity; take a friend and spread the V-Day love. It will be a greater experience than either of you are possibly able to expect.
