My Bloody Valentine3Arena, Dublin\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n
\u201cLouder?\u201d Kevin Shields<\/a> wryly asks the audience on Saturday night as he, Colm \u00d3 C\u00edos\u00f3ig, Debbie Googe and Bilinda Butcher lay waste to whatever expectations anyone might have had about My Bloody Valentine<\/a>\u2019s first headline show in Dublin since 1992.<\/p>\n The visuals of a murmuration of birds that accompany I Only Said are emblematic of the swooping mystery of this wonderfully strange group, who reconnect ghosts of baggy shoegaze, Joe Meek, The Velvet Underground and Brian Wilson.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to sound like a band killing their songs,\u201d Shields said a few years ago, but for this show at 3Arena<\/a> \u2013 which the guitarist dedicates to Mani, the late Stone Roses bassist<\/a> \u2013 they sound like a band feeding us with their kiss, to paraphrase one of their songs.<\/p>\n The stridently playful New You is adroitly served by Butcher\u2019s warm voice. The guitars of You Never Should provide focus amid the squall, as does the folk-inflected Cigarette in Your Bed, striking the balance between restraint and force that My Bloody Valentine do so well.<\/p>\n The drums of Only Tomorrow are pleasingly sloping; the woozy haze of Come in Alone amplifies the swirling guitars of Only Shallow, which itself sounds like a warning bell. A highlight is Off Your Face, so rich in its perfect unity and balance. It is followed by the urgent, scuzzy Thorn. <\/p>\n There is romance in Nothing Much to Lose, spectres of trip hop on Who Sees You, and a radiant dreaminess on To Here Knows When. For much of the night Shields seems lost in a dream, communing with a bank of speakers, disappearing into the wall of sound they have created.<\/p>\n