JimDeRogatis
October 1st, 2008, 12:44 PM
Based on the reviews in the British press of their celebrated reunion tour, I expected My Bloody Valentine to offer an evening of nostalgia when it pulled into the Aragon Ballroom for a sold-out show on Saturday night.
Though the group's last album remains one of the most inventive, influential and unique recordings of the last two decades--a record the equal of any psychedelic-rock masterpiece you can name--the legendary guitar rockers haven't released any significant new music in 17 years, and their current set draws almost entirely from "Loveless" (1991) and the EPs that preceded it.
Guitarists-vocalists Kevin Shields and Bilinda Butcher, drummer Colm O'Ciosig and bassist Debbie Googe quit at the top of their game in 1992, with bandleader Shields suffering a mysterious breakdown/artistic paralysis that marked him as the Brian Wilson or Syd Barrett of Generation X, unable to follow up his masterpiece. This was a band with a lot of unfinished business, and one that still sounds undeniable today--at least on record.
What I didn't expect was that the Valentines of 2008 would sound so horribly dated onstage--as much of an oldies act as the Eagles or the Rolling Stones--and as blatantly a comeback cash-in as other recent reunion tours by alternative-era peers such as the Pixies, Rage Against the Machine and the reconstituted Smashing Pumpkins.
More... (http://blogs.suntimes.com/derogatis/2008/09/my_bloody_valentine_at_the_ara.html)
Though the group's last album remains one of the most inventive, influential and unique recordings of the last two decades--a record the equal of any psychedelic-rock masterpiece you can name--the legendary guitar rockers haven't released any significant new music in 17 years, and their current set draws almost entirely from "Loveless" (1991) and the EPs that preceded it.
Guitarists-vocalists Kevin Shields and Bilinda Butcher, drummer Colm O'Ciosig and bassist Debbie Googe quit at the top of their game in 1992, with bandleader Shields suffering a mysterious breakdown/artistic paralysis that marked him as the Brian Wilson or Syd Barrett of Generation X, unable to follow up his masterpiece. This was a band with a lot of unfinished business, and one that still sounds undeniable today--at least on record.
What I didn't expect was that the Valentines of 2008 would sound so horribly dated onstage--as much of an oldies act as the Eagles or the Rolling Stones--and as blatantly a comeback cash-in as other recent reunion tours by alternative-era peers such as the Pixies, Rage Against the Machine and the reconstituted Smashing Pumpkins.
More... (http://blogs.suntimes.com/derogatis/2008/09/my_bloody_valentine_at_the_ara.html)