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<\/p>\nBy Christopher David<\/p>\n
If you listened close enough, you might have heard the sound of 2,500 wishlists being checked off on Saturday at the Riviera Theater as shoegaze gods My Bloody Valentine brought their sonic psychedelia to Chicago, one of only a few stops on their North American tour.<\/p>\n
Actually, scratch that. You wouldn\u2019t have been able to hear anything outside of the wall of swirling, spacey sound created by Kevin Shields (guitar, vocals), Belinda Butcher (guitar, vocals), Debbie Googe (bass), Colm O Ciosoig (drums) and Jen Macro (keys). It was a sound unlike any other, breathlessly rendered pop songs from another dimension.<\/p>\n
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By this point, MBV\u2019s sound is known even to many who might not know anything about the band. Having been cited as an influence on everyone from Nine Inch Nails to U2 and a guiding spirit in the alternative rock boom of the 1990s, Shields and company have refused to play by conventional rules, and while it\u2019s cost them some mainstream attention, they\u2019ve proven time and again that they don\u2019t need it – they\u2019re one of a very few bands who gets to do exactly what it wants to do, and damn anyone who doesn\u2019t like it: their fans aren\u2019t going anywhere.<\/p>\n
Indeed, there\u2019s no way that \u2018disappointment\u2019 could have been on anyone\u2019s lips after Saturday\u2019s show. Treating the audience to the bulk of Loveless<\/em> (MBV\u2019s ground-breaking 1991 album noted by many music publications, journalists, and fans as one of the greatest albums of all time), a smattering of older cuts (\u201cFeed Me With Your Kiss,\u201d \u201cNothing Much to Lose\u201d), choice selections from their 2013 album mbv<\/em> and even a couple of new songs, My Bloody Valentine left no stone unturned.<\/p>\n Much has been made of the legendary volume – a borderline dangerous mix of distortion and layering that you can just about feel in your chest – and the rumors, on that front, are true: from the second they hit the stage to \u201cI Only Said\u201d and transitioned seamlessly into \u201cWhen You Sleep\u201d (a chart-topper in some other parallel universe, if there\u2019s any justice), it was clear that this was no mere band, this was an experience. A swirling panorama of colors and kaleidoscopic images spilled from the screens behind the stage and across the performers, giving everything an eerie, otherworldly quality, particularly on the hypnotic, mid-tempo drone of \u201cOnly Tomorrow\u201d and \u201cCome in Alone,\u201d and by the time the band reached the end of the set, long-time followers knew what was coming. \u201cYou Made Me Realize,\u201d the storied finish to MBV\u2019s set as a general rule, has been known to hit lengths of nearly thirty minutes, with a middle break that can only be described as earth-shattering; while it only clocked at about nine minutes on this particular evening, the band reached a white-noise zenith of guitar effects and thrumming percussion that sustained for longer than one could stand it without ear plugs before dropping back into song suddenly; the musical equivalent of a cresting roller coaster. (Anyone not wearing ear plugs probably still has ringing, as we speak.)<\/p>\n A man of few words, Shields merely said hello at the start and thanked the crowd for coming at the end. The massive bank of effects pedals surrounding him did most of the talking, and that was fine – My Bloody Valentine feel less like a band than the human manifestation of synesthesia, and Saturday\u2019s show was the stuff of blissed-out dreams for fans who had waited upward of twenty-five years for the chance.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/37928900_2054674197940942_1523846055794311168_n.jpg\")
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