Ahhhhh, that was so great!
Got to Richmond later than I hoped and after a burger and a couple of Macallan's 12 at Gibson's I got into the National at 7:45, got a legend beer and found a good spot midway back of the floor, center, and waited and waited. . . I almost never do that, but it was a solid real estate investment . . . the opener was fine background music as I relived in my head the different times i listened to MBV over the years, tried to remember where I bought Loveless, Isn't Anythiing, the Glider ep, that other ep, how much I paid etc., etc., etc., until finally it started
I took my earplugs out early in the first song and didn't put them back in until the Realise noisefest. . . didn't seem dangeroulsy loud to me and the only really jarring thing were those intermittant bass earthquakes shaking the foundation of the songs, the venue and your body . . . and the clarity of the drums and trying to hear all the nuances of the mix were too much to miss given the apparent lack of danger
One thing that often gets overlooked w/ MBV is how f*cking great Colm O'Coisig is on drums . . .clean nuclear fills driving many songs . . . driving the waves of sound, or is it riding the waves of sound . . . or more subtley providing structure
Certainly Kevin was inaudible at times, but mostly he and Bilinda could be heard . . . and anyway, the vocals floating in and out is to be expected/hoped for
When the band locked in, and Bilinda coooed over the mix, or traded vocals with Kevin . . . time disappeared and it was the greatest
The Realise 'holocaust' was cool, but had been so built up in my mind prior that the shock and awe element was diminished . . . but it was interesting just getting lost in it and trying to discern the texture of it and it struck me how particularly clear and powerful the song sounded when they dropped back into the regular verse.