Of all the artistic media, music—which is really just a bunch of invisible vibrations in the air—is the most transient and the hardest to pin down.

But 20 years after their classic debut, Isn’t Anything, My Bloody Valentine is still working hard to change that fact. Their concert at the Roseland Ballroom on Sept. 23 was a distinctly physical experience. It was kind of like playing hockey, or running a half-marathon.

With the volume cranked up well past the point of comfort (even with the recommended earplugs they were giving out at the door), the reunited MBV reminded thousands of their fans that sound waves can be felt in every part of your body: in your chest and in your throat, and in the way that your clothes flutter with each hit of the bass drum. And without the earplugs, you also feel the pain of your cochlea dying a slow death.

This intensely visceral show at a packed-to-the-gills Roseland Ballroom came courtesy of a band that hadn’t played together in 16 years until re-forming to play a handful of European dates before headlining the inaugural stateside edition of All Tomorrow’s Parties in upstate New York a few days ago. The iconic Kevin Shields and company, standing stock-still throughout, recreated everything that their band was about in the early nineties, amidst a whirling chaos of effects pedals and strobe lights. The vocals couldn’t keep up volume-wise, but the die-hards know that MBV’s vocals have always rightly hovered in the background.

This music is about the cacophony of all the various textures, and the way that that sound makes you feel inside… literally. As their traditional closer, My Bloody Valentine plays a super-extended version of “You Made Me Realize,” with the three minute song played straightforwardly at the beginning and then again at the end, separated by about 15 minutes of otherworldly, incomparably awesome noise. Even with the assumption that most of the crowd knew this was coming, it was amazing how many stayed for the entire mind-blowing song. As the wall of sound kept building and building, moving through every possible register and tone coloration, the audience withstood an aural assault that was felt, at one point or another, in every organ and bone in their bodies.

*written by Robin Ziari, pics by Rebecca Wilson (despite a very aggressive no photography policy at Roseland)

See My Bloody Valentine Live:
27 Sept - Chicago, IL @ Aragorn Ballroom
30 Sept - San Francisco, CA @ The Concourse Exhibition Center
01 Oct - Los Angeles, CA @ Santa Monica Civic Center
02 Oct - Los Angeles, CA @ Santa Monica Civic Center

Visit My Bloody Valentine on MySpace.