With bated breath, the whole auditorium is on tippy toes (aside from the freakishly tall amongst us) to catch a glimpse of Shields & Co as they make their grand entrance. With few words they launch straight into I Only Said from 1991’s Loveless; it sounds amazing. I have to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. Can you believe it? In the space of a week, I have seen MBV perform twice! In rapture, the crowd is in full teeth smile mode as I look around – lots of serious fans in the audience tonight. As the verse begins, I notice that like the mix at ATP, I can barely hear the vocal. I understand this is probably the band’s intention, but it does frustrate me. There is submerged and then there is inaudible – Kevin Shield’s vocal gravitated towards the inaudible for most of the set tonight. Still that lingering refrain of I Only Said is a sincere delight to listen to.
Awash in a sea of deep blue projections, the opening strains of When You Sleep begin. Hearing this, it’s hard to believe that Loveless was released over 20 years ago. The songs sound as vital as ever, especially in a live capacity, where Colm Ó Cíosóig’s drums leap into the foreground with great urgency. The band’s rhythm section works like a machine, Cíosóig and bassist Debbie Googe are in their own little world together, the driving force behind these whimsical arrangements.
To my dismay, that incredible hook (I’ve often wondered what exactly makes the sound – is it effected vocal, guitar or strings?) is played through a backing track this evening. It seems somewhat secretive in a way, the pre-recorded output hiding aspects of the composition from snoopy ears. Some things must remain a mystery I suppose…
The set list veers through You Never Should from 1988’s Isn’t Everything (no Soft As Snow unfortunately), Honey Power from the Tremolo EP and Cigarette In Your Bed from the You Made Me Realise EP. Where Shields’ vocal lines are muffled underneath the layers of guitar in You Never Should, Bilinda Butcher’s sweet vocals make Honey Power and Cigarette In Your Bed set highlights. Throughout the set, I have been noticing with great envy Butcher’s guitar collection. An all-white Fender Jaguar, a ‘50s era mint green guitar and a series of glittery Fenders in red, silver and (to my ultimate jealousy) emerald green. Very classy indeed.
Back to Loveless material, Come In Alone is put to a grinding halt as Shields heads off the stage. In the interim Bilinda Butcher tells a joke about a zoo, through her thick accent I miss the punch line but cheer anyway. She is cool personified and I’m still staring at her guitars. Shields is back and the band launch into Come In Alone for a second time and as they do, the projections morph into the pink and red tones of the iconic Loveless album cover, which is certainly getting a thorough working through this evening.
Ultimately, it is tonight’s rendition of You Made Me Realise (off the You Made Me Realise EP) that offers the most impact, thrusting the audience into an uneasy trip of disturbance and admiration. After a few minutes, a psychotic white noise section erupts from the song; its minimalism seems too much for some members of the audience, who block their ears in discomfort. On a day of intense heat, I was pushed to the threshold of what I could personally handle, but herein lies the genius. After what seemed like an eternity of monotonous drone and distortion, the band slid back into song and structure. The shock of this was wonderful and ecstatic, soaring the melody to greater heights than ever before. By some cathartic miracle, when the lights came on, no one in the crowd made a fuss. No encore was necessary.
BY CASSANDRA KIELY
LOVED: Bilinda Butcher’s guitars. Swoon.
HATED: People on Instagram, why not concentrate on the gig you fools?!
DRANK: A few overpriced whiskeys.
