My Bloody Valentine’s drummer has said he doesn’t think gigs are loud enough anymore.

Colm Ó Cíosóig wrote a letter to the Irish Times last week to complain about the “acceptance of muted culture”.

As Noisey reports, he called that a “dangerous place to be” and cited two gigs at Dublin’s 3arena where he was disappointed with the volume.


“I have been to two very expensive gigs there recently and have experienced annoyingly cheap and thin-sounding representations of what should have been all-engulfing wonderful realities,” he wrote.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8kjbjx2EUw

“The 3Arena is an example of this new reality that is castrating culture and charging a fortune for it. The decibel- limiting on the PA system is very sad indeed. When upfront at a gig you are supposed to feel the drums and bass rattle your bones, and the music should fill your head to the extant that it can bring you to an ecstatic place.

“This is where I wanted to be at Black Sabbath last Friday and Neil Young a few months back,” he continued. “Instead I had to deal with the fact that the volume would not be turned up and the likelihood of reaching ecstasy was slim.”

In the letter, he makes no reference to My Bloody Valentine or the volume at which they usually play. The shoegaze band have been cited regularly in the past as one of the loudest bands in the world.

He added that he “couldn’t even mutter curses” at the two gigs referenced “as it would have annoyed people around me”.