MY BLOODY VALENTINE

For two nights, Santa Monica was the center of the rock and roll universe, when My Bloody Valentine rolled into town. This is legendary shit, man.

I was lucky enough to go both nights.
The second show was even better than the first.
The beginning actually started off a little less loud than the first night (not quieter. less loud. there is a difference) so you could actually make out some of the more subtle parts through the din..... and even hear Billinda's heavenly voice lilting throuh the hall. It was like putting Loveless on god's stereo and turning it up to 11. It was intense, but it walked the edge, just shy of brutality.
It was lush and beautiful and everything music should be. I danced, I screamed, I sang. I drank every note they threw at me.
And then there was You Made Me Realize, when I noticed volume knob had been slowly raised over 60 minutes, hurtling the show into its 132 decibel finale.
This was rock and roll at its finest, its pinnacle. A demonstration of how destructive 2 guitars, a bass, and a drum kit could be.
I could feel my chest trembling, my head vibrating.... I held my hands up in front of me and pushed against the air, an almost tangible force of sound shoving them backwrds, making them shake. I closed my eyes, threw back my head, dropped my mostly unused earplugs onto the floor and let it wash over me. It was like being held by a pair of arms you couldnt see, but you knew loved you.
16 minutes. It was transcendent. I wanted to take every 16 year old hardcore loving twit I have ever met, throw them into the speaker, and scream "THIS is what heavy sounds like, FUCKER."
And at some points, I wanted to cover my ears.
And then without warning or even a nod from any band member, they simultaneously lurched back into the ending crescendo of You Made Me Realize.
I knew this was a moment that may never come again, never duplicated. And maybe it shouldnt be. This was something as momentus as Jimi Hendrix lighting his guitar on fire and sacrificing it to the music gods at Monterey Pop. As powerful as Syd Barrett's first hit of acid. This was Elvis and the Beatles first television shows. This was all of that wrapped up and beaten down with a Marshall stack.
This was a band proving that even after 26 years, they are the most powerful sonic force on god's green earth; for that moment everything around me stood still.
And they did make me realize.... that if something like this could exist in the world, it is truly a wonderful world after all.