The queues to get into Manchesters Aviva venue filter underneath the neon ‘Sold Out’ signs and straight up to security folk who are armed with buckets of earplugs. My Bloody Valentine are in town and all is as it ever was for them.
Support artist Maria Somerville and her band exist in a similar musical space to My Bloody Valentine, floaty ethereal vocals and heavy effects laden guitars. Maria has a tour lined up starting early next year in the UK and Ireland before heading across the Atlantic to the US. She warms the rapidly filling vast warehouse space up well.
But, My Bloody Valentine, the main event. The sonic sculptors as famous for using overwhelming volume as part of their sound take to the stage in swirl of purples and greens. The volume is truly threatening, their dreamy sometimes achingly pretty music can be washed away by the sheer immensity of its presentation. How such gentle floating vocals exist in the same band as the sometimes harsh guitars is sometimes hard to fathom but it all melds together in one tidal wave of noise and music.
They play Soon and dedicate it to Stone Roses Mani, there’s an interruption as the power goes down then back on then off again for minutes. The silence filled by Kevin Shields occasional remark feels very odd after the immersive wall of sound we’ve just experienced. Then we get You Made Me Realise containing a five or so minute section of unadulterated noise and then the room falls silent for a final time. Breathtaking.
WORDS AND PHOTOS RICHIE YATES
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