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My Bloody Valentine wrap up US tour in LA

My Bloody Valentine
Pic: James Quinton

My Bloody Valentine Pic: James Quinton

Shoegazing legends play their first California gigs in nearly two decades

My Bloody Valentine wrapped up their US tour in Los Angeles last night (October 1) with the first of two sold-out shows at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.

When the lights went down in the packed auditorium, fans screamed "I love you!" as the recently reunited band took the stage. The legendary shoegazers began the show with a full-blown assault on the senses, creating a hypnotic effect with mesmerising strobe lights and their trademark deafeningly loud screeching guitars.

The quartet kicked off with 'I Only Said' from their landmark 1990 album 'Loveless' and segued into 'When You Sleep'.

The band battled through sound troubles throughout the night including feedback and inaudible vocals, and lived up to their shoegazing reputation, hardly saying a word during their 80-minute set.

Toward the end of the evening, frontman Kevin Shields said, "Thanks for coming," and the crowd roared back in response.

The band concluded with a 15-minute guitar and bass assault that caused fans to stream out of the auditorium doors with their hands covering their ears.

My Bloody Valentine played:

'I Only Said'
'When You Sleep'
'You Never Should'
'When You Wake'
'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'


My Bloody Valentine will conclude their US tour with their final show at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium tonight (October 2).

--By our Los Angeles staff.
Find out more about NME.

Comments (2)

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kzufolo 

Oct 3, 2008

You forgot You Made Me Realise as the last song of the night...The noise at the end is still ringing in my ears... That was possibly the best show I have ever been to, the only exception being Radiohead at Santa Barbara about a month ago...I hope they tour Southern CA again SOON.

misterlamps 

Oct 3, 2008

"The band battled through sound troubles throughout the night including feedback and inaudible vocals" - er, that's what they always sound like.

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