My Bloody Valentine played their first live show since 2013 last night (22 June), at Birmingham’s O2 Institute.
The gig kicked off their summer headline tour, which sees them tour the US, as well as play a few festivals, including Robert Smith’s Meltdown Festival, Japan’s Sonic Mania festival and Denmark’s Roskilde festival.
One fan on Twitter described the Birmingham gig as ‘loud as hell’, thanking the band for the earplugs they traditionally gift their fans, and mentioning a few technical difficulties.
‘Back at the hotel. Typical bad back and aching legs. and thank god for the earplugs,’ he wrote. ‘Good gig, in spite of Kevin Shields obviously having technical problems and a few false starts in the first half.
‘Loud as hell, as one would expect from My Bloody Valentine.’
Fan Jon Crowley described the gig as ‘rough and messy but that’s fine because a) it was a warm up gig (a few false starts!) and b) this band are meant to sound messy!’
Watch some clips below.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BkWKpM-FScv/?taken-at=25377
My Bloody Valentine’s Birmingham setlist was:
I Only Said
When You Sleep
New You
You Never Should
Honey Power
Cigarette in Your Bed
Only Tomorrow
Only Shallow
Who Sees You
To Here Knows When
Slow
Soon
Wonder 2
Feed Me With Your Kiss
You Made Me Realise
The band didn’t play any music from their forthcoming two EPs, which will be the first new offerings since 2013’s ‘m b v‘.
After Shields described their new album as ‘more like a sprawling EP‘, the band eventually decided to release it as two EPs, one coming this summer, and the second in spring 2019.
Last November, Shields described their new music as ‘all over the place’, but said the band itself was ‘in a healthy state’.
Earlier this year, My Bloody Valentine released ‘all analog’ reissues of their ‘Isn’t Anything’ and ‘Loveless’ albums, with some lucky fans also receiving a special surprise of an alternative cut an pressing of ‘Isn’t Anything’.