It’s been nearly a year since My Bloody Valentine announced their first show since 2018, a gig at Dublin’s 3arena this coming Saturday that also marks their first headlining show in Ireland since 1992. They’ve since added more live dates in the UK for later this month, plus a performance at Clockenflap next month (their first ever Hong Kong concert), a February run through Japan, and an appearance at Primavera Sound in Barcelona in June. But before all that, the shoegaze superheroes made a surprise return to the stage tonight.
Monday, the Dublin concert promoter Foggy Notions emailed out notice of a special MBV live event happening tonight at a location TBD. The teaser featured the same design format as the promotions for Saturday’s big arena show and prominently featured the logo for Isn’t Anything, MBV’s 1988 full-length debut. That show did indeed go down tonight at National Stadium, which is not actually a stadium but a boxing/wrestling facility that doubles as a music venue. Capacity is about 2,000. The band played cuts from throughout their discography, including “Off Your Face” for the first time. According to attendees, there were several tech problems and the show started late, meaning they ended up cutting “Who Sees You” and “Wonder 2” from the setlist.
Meanwhile, Isn’t Anything and 1991’s deified Loveless disappeared from streaming services more than two months ago, though the 2013 comeback album m b v remains. MBV’s current record label Domino told Stereogum they don’t have any information to share about why the albums were removed.
SETLIST:
01 “I Only Said”
02 “When You Sleep”
03 “New You”
04 “You Never Should”
05 “Honey Power”
06 “Cigarette In Your Bed”
07 “Only Tomorrow”
08 “Come In Alone”
09 “Only Shallow”
10 “Off Your Face”
11 “Thorn”
12 “Nothing Much To Lose”
13 “To Here Knows When”
14 “Slow”
15 “Soon”
16 “Feed Me With Your Kiss”
17 “You Made Me Realise”
