My Bloody Valentine have returned to the stage for the first time in seven years for a surprise secret gig in Dublin.
Folks, it’s finally happening – My Bloody Valentine are back and are already kicking things off with a bang.
The shoegaze legends would return to the stage Wednesday night (November 19) for a performance at Dublin’s The National Stadium. The event, billed as “Isn’t Anything”, would mark their first concert appearance since 2018 at California’s Desert Daze festival.
Marking their first live performance, the band would pull out a 19-song setlist featuring a number of fan faves and deep cuts. Most notably, the band would debut the track ‘Off Your Face’, taken from the 1990s Glider EP. Other tracks played throughout the night would include ‘Come in Alone’, ‘Soon’, ‘Cigarette in Your Bed,’ ‘Thorn’, and ‘Only Shallow’ before finishing the night with ‘You Made Me Realise’.
What was initially intended as a small, intimate performance, as BrooklynVegan would point out, My Bloody Valentine would need to promote the venue to the 2000-seat arena after demand skyrocketed.
While the performance itself was solid, there were some minor hiccups throughout the night, which should be expected for a band’s first gig in almost ten years.
One Instagram user who was there on the night would share that there were “equipment problems, under-powered volume, missed cues, bad vibes, and abandoned songs.” BrooklynVegan would also note that the venue had problems with its ticket scanners, which led to attendees being unable to enter the venue until 9pm that night.
Initially, the band were expected to have their first performance at Dublin’s 3Arena on November 22nd. If you saw the news and thought you missed the big night, worry not: this performance was intended primarily as a surprise and as a warm-up for the big night.
My Bloody Valentine are also expected to perform a string of one-off gigs throughout November, followed by a series of shows in Asia before appearing at Barcelona’s Primavera Sound in June.
Will this mean the band intends to release more music in the future and is simply warming up for something big? It’s hard to say, but at the very least, despite some hiccups, it’s great to see Kevin Shields and the band active again.
You can check out the live performance of the track ‘Soon’ from the night below:
Full setlist from the night:
- I Only Said
- When You Sleep
- New You
- You Never Should
- Honey Power
- Cigarette in Your Bed
- Only Tomorrow
- Come in Alone
- Only Shallow
- Off Your Face (live debut)
- Thorn
- Nothing Much to Lose
- Who Sees You
- To Here Knows When
- Slow
- Soon
- Wonder 2
- Feed Me With Your Kiss
- You Made Me Realise